My first Neighborhood!

Who were the people in my neighborhood? No not my friends that lived next door or across the street from my grandmothers house in Chicago. My first neighbors, like many folks my age, were in a place I could never physically get to but I visited for about a hour Monday thru Friday.

Sesame Street was the place where anything was possible and anyone could get to. (I was especially happy when Uncle Stevie Wonder would come by for a visit.) According to my mother I had a unnatural attachment to “Big Bird” and after being given a Big Bird doll for Christmas we became inseparable.

There was Bob and Linda,

Gordon and Susan,

Maria and Luis

and Mr. Hooper

who ran the store on the corner surrounded by all these felt covered creatures that were just great.

Oscar the grouch, the Count, Bert and Ernie, Snuffy the Snuffleupagus (who was a secret until the mid 80’s) Cookie Monster, Grover, and Kermit the Frog (who left to purse a career on the Muppet Show)

Much simpler times indeed and with all this election/campaigning going on sometimes when it just gets to be too much I just want to go visit an old neighbor.

Let me just say that in doing the research for this blog it brought a tear to my eye as I poured over information about the shows progress since I had stopped watching it over 20 years ago. Not just the Elmo stuff which is well known but also the addition of HIV characters as well as the addition of characters many different nationalities. And even the progress of the Children born to characters on the show. Cant wait to check back in another 20 years.