Sesame Street’s 41st anniversary

Saw this post on Flickr about today being the 41st anniversary of Sesame Street and it kinda sent me down memory lane.

I LOVED Sesame Street.

My parents are convinced that Sesame Street taught me how to read. We had these VHS tapes recorded from the TV, all with the same white cases with multi-colored stripes, and I totally remember putting them into the old silver tape player. I even used to tell time in Sesame Streets. As in, “Mom, how much longer until we get to [my grandparents’ house, after lunch so I could eat chocolate, my birthday]?” She would do some quick math and then reply, “About [so many] Sesame Streets.” Who needs hours and minutes when you’ve got Grover, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and the rest of the gang?

(sidenote: We had this Farmer Grover book that I remember loving, because my mom would do the Grover voice. My sister recalls it as her favorite childhood book. And my mom recalls hating it, since it was super long and Grover’s voice is really only fun for so long. Guess she hid it well.)

I was actually just thinking about Sesame Street last week when I was watching an old My So-Called Life episode. If Sesame Street was my favorite show when I was a kid, MSCL was the teenage (and beyond) counterpart. (ok, and a foolish but brief foray into Dawson’s Creek there for a while.) I adore My So-Called Life – I have the entire series on DVD – some low budget version with typos in the menu screens. Typically, I hate any Sesame Street spin off. Or questioning of Bert and Ernie’s sexuality. Or any other grown-up intrusions. And so it’s only because I love MSCL that I can accept this, Rayanne’s rendition of the Sesame Street theme (right before she breaks her sobriety! Nineties drama!)

As I started searching YouTube for Sesame Street clips from my childhood tapes, I realized that my era is now marked as “vintage.” Whoa.

Here’s one with John John and Grover, counting to one.

For whatever reason, this song comes into my head all of the time, still. “Iiiiiiiinnnnn the dooooooor, in in in in the door.” I also really love blue monster’s dance moves as he busts through the In door.

It’s funny how many celebrities have been on Sesame Street. I watched a few of the new ones (Feist singing “1,2,3,4,” Sesame Street-style) but wanted to see if I remembered any of the old ones. The Johnny Cash/Oscar the Grouch duet was pretty great, but wasn’t on my tapes. But I totally remember singing Jellyman Jelly with James Taylor.

And then, because you’ve got to love the ducky:

Put Down the Ducky (“You gotta put down the ducky if you want to play the saxophone!”)

Do De Ducky (world’s largest bathtub)

and the classic, Rubber Ducky.