On the Street Where We Lived

On the Street Where We Lived

For years our family lived in two neighborhoods, ours and Big Birds, and there were times when the bird’s seemed more real than ours. I remember someone asking Lisa where she lived and she answered, “Sesame Street.” I knew exactly how she felt because there were lots of times when Big Bird’s place was a lot more fun than ours. There were never any meals to cook, rooms to clean, diapers to change—just songs to sing, letters to learn, numbers to count, and friends, lots of friends. Many were the times when I was ready to go to the post office and fill out a change of address card.

Although the world is celebrating Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary I was too old to watch it when it first came out in the 1960’s. But once Lisa was born it wasn’t long before we were sitting in front of the TV singing along with C is for Cookie! They tell me that Cookie Monster eats vegetables now but I can’t believe it.

We used to watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood as well. We enjoyed seeing the places that he visited—the mushroom mine, the ballet studio, the trumpet factory—but it was missing a certain pizzazz that only Sesame Street could deliver. With Mr. Rogers there were no hidden meanings. What you saw was what you got. But with Kermit et al, the double entendres ricocheted off the TV set like bullets. Lisa would wonder why mommy was laughing so hard but there was no way that I could explain it to her. She quickly got used to the fact that mommy laughed at weird stuff and continued to enjoy the music, the colors, the action. She didn’t need me to explain any of that.

The show’s cleverness took my breath away. Where else could you see Smokey Robinson being chased by a huge letter U?” Or hear puppet Beatles croon Letter B or enjoy muppet Cyndi Lauper jiving to Cereal Girl? Kermit’s manic direction of Forgetful Jones doing Oklahoma was a vowel masterpiece. The songs could be simple as Rubber Duckie or as hilarious as Dancing Myself to Sleep where boogying sheep throw the long suffering Bert out the bedroom window.

Two sweet songs that still make me cry are Ernie’s, I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon which captures the delight of traveling to far off places and then coming safely home and Kermit’s, It’s Not Easy Being Green, a timeless tribute to being different. And what could be more joyously exuberant than Ernie, Hoots the Owl and a host of celebrities jazzing to Put Down the Duckie, while celebrating music, dancing and life.

I think what amazed me was how involved we became in the lives of the people who lived on Sesame Street. I might have enjoyed visiting Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood but once I turned off the set I could have cared less about what King Friday or Queen Saturday were doing. But everyone on Sesame Street became family, both humans and puppets. I still remember feeling incredibly frustrated when no one would believe Big Bird about his friend Mr. Snuffleupagus. I would scream at Bob or Susan or Maria, “Just turn around for heavens sake he’s right behind you!” When they finally decided to allow the rest of the neighborhood see Snuffy I heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Though I enjoyed keeping up with the lives of Susan, Gordon, Oscar and Grover my favorite couple was Maria and Luis. I set up my video recorder to record the biggest event of the season, their wedding. The rest of the world might have gone crazy over Princess Dianna and Prince Charles but in our house the royal couple was Luis and Maria. We had watched them meet and get to know each other so being invited to their TV wedding seemed perfectly natural. Later on when they had a baby girl we felt like godparents.

Even though Sesame Street was on all morning and then later in the afternoon, Lisa loved the program so much that even watching six times a day wasn’t enough for her. I had to tape weeks of episodes so that she could watch them whenever she wanted. And when there was a song that she really loved she would yell out, “Again!” which meant that I would have to rewind and rewind and rewind the tape till she had enough. Of course that also meant that I was in trouble when she was watching a broadcast and not a tape. No matter how I tried I couldn’t make her understand the difference between a tape and the TV.

Luckily for us Sesame Street followed us to Israel in the form of, Rehov Sumsum or the girls would never have left home. They would watch Bert, Ernie and Big Bird speak Hebrew and never question it. Seeing Oscar the Grouch as an Israeli grump was an unforgettable experience.

Now the years have passed and things have changed. I’ve heard that Cookie Monster now eats vegetables, Mr. Hooper’s store is a bodega and Bert and Ernie don’t share a bedroom anymore. But even though we no longer visit the place where the air is sweet it’s comforting to know that all over the world children are still asking, “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?”