It's hard for me to believe Sesame Street and I are only a couple years apart in age. I can't remember a world without Big Bird or Burt and Ernie. My mom told me that when I was little I had a special chair for watching Sesame Street. When I had kids of my own, we had an off and on relationship with the show. Now that our very youngest are able to get something out of it, it's a large part of our daily routine.
I won't write a tribute, there are many around the Internet and we don't need another one. But it's such a huge part of who I am that I needed to mention it.
The show has changed an amazing amount in 40 years. It still teaches the ABCs and 123s, with some bilingual lessons here and there. It's also managed to change with the times, staying entertaining and relevant to compete with the huge bombardment of television our children are exposed to today. When I watched it, it was on one of 3, maybe 4 channels. The other ran soap operas or news programs in the same time slot. Now it's up against who knows how much other stuff on who knows how many channels, not to mention DVDs and video games and so on.
Now, sing along with me! "One, two, three. Four, five, six. Seven, eight, nine. Ten, eleven, twelve. And they all played games... at the Lady Bug Picnic!"
