Well not exactly today, but still in all 20 times two years back, when Sesame Street hit the, well, streets. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Actually, I don’t remember it like yesterday, but I do remember it. My kindergarten year, and I was counting and learning letters from the television. Not really, I was an early reader who had mastered a lot of the basics before formal education, but I loved me some Muppets. I still love me some Muppets. Not Elmo, though, apart from being all new school and shit, Elmo’s voice cuts through me like a knife.
That’s the kind of Sesame Street I remember. When two men, one orange one yellow, could cohabit and sing. And foreigners counting.
The truth is for a certain amount of kids programming, I don’t know if I remember it more from when I was supposed to watch it, or years later when I “babysat” and spent hours and hours and hours of time with my cousins. The eldest born when I was the oh so grownup age of 8.
Maybe because I was big for my age and ever so precocious, or possibly because the adults figured with the yin and the yang of my skills combined with my slightly older brother’s some semblance of order would reign, but from early on we got to spend time keeping an eye on the youngsters. My aunt’s and uncle’s house was a treasure trove of a house to be staying for a few hours. There were piles and shelves of books of every kind, where I got to read both at a kid’s level and way, way above my comprehension. And the kids themselves had a great array of toys and games and electronics. The first Nintendo I saw up close was at their house.
Somewhere in there, watching PBS and children’s TV is mashed together in my brain. Did I watch Sesame Street on my own in my own home? Or am I remembering Teddy’s and Tommy’s TV way back when?
Technorati Tags: childhood, family, Sesame Street, television
OK, I certainly cannot speak for what you watched, but it being the mid to late 70’s when Tommy and I were in prime “Sesame Street” watching years would have been like 1974 through 1979 or so. Since there weren’t kids channels, we could turn to “Spout”, “Nick Jr.” or the veritable potpourri of channels available to my children, it was PBS or Saturday Morning cartoons.
I know we watched Sesame Street, Electric Company and Zoom (which to this day I still recall is the way I learned my zip code) all the time, so my guess is that you remember a lot from watching TV with Tommy and me. Also, we got Magabox (i.e. “Pong”) in 1978 and Atari the year following. After we moved, there is no way in hell either of us were going to watch any of the PBS kids shows (I was 7 going on 8 then)