Growing Up With Sesame Street

This post is long overdue. I was planning it out in November 2009 and now it's already February 2010! What triggered this sudden compulsion to post about Sesame Street? It all started with Google Chrome. As you know, I was converted to a Chrome user not long ago and Chrome's default homepage is Google's search page (as opposed to Firefox's default Firefox-Google search page). So, I get to see the change of Google logos whenever they change them. One morning, it was a pleasant surprise to see my favourite Cookie Monster when I launched Chrome. Clicking the logo, I found out it was Sesame Street's 40th anniversary! I never knew Sesame Street was that old! (Hmm... actually, come to think of it, I do remember the video quality and wardrobe fashion were pretty 70s looking - so, yes, I guess it's justifiable - 40! Besides, I was watching it in the 80s and 90s)

Below are the Google logos dedicated to Sesame Street which ran from 4th-10th November 2010 in various parts of the world. They're taken from their logos site (click for link).

I have many fond memories of this children's educational programme. But the most memorable one was learning how to pronounce "-tion" words through a song! As a result, I learned to read words like 'creation', 'irrational' and 'distortion'. Imagine, if not for Sesame Street, I would be pronouncing 'emotion' as "emo-tee-on" HAHAHA

Another song which comes to mind is the Count counting numbers with his purple felt head bobbing forwards and back. I used to dream of touching Snuffleupagus' straggley brown fur and his tassle eyelashes were just so 'drama queen' charming! And Big Bird... where do I begin!?! I never really knew whether Big Bird was a he or a she, but according to this Muppet Wiki page, Big Bird is referred to as a 'he'. That Wikia site offers info on all the Muppets characters (if you have the time to research on them).

A couple of years back, our local McDonald's came out with a range of Sesame Street Mini Bean Pals as the toy which comes together with a Happy Meal. There were 24 beanies in the collection and you could buy a red felt wall display unit with labelled pockets to store the individual bean pals (I did not buy that because it was quite expensive for a girl on student budget, as I remembered). Anyway, I ended up eating Happy Meals every week just to collect all 24! Boy, did McDonald's marketing strategy really work on me (and countless many more!). Well, the result was a total swear-off McDonald's for a few months and the subjects in the pictures below.

And all of them together:

CNN had a special coverage on Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. They even temporarily renamed a street in NYC. Below is a photo of Zoe, Oscar and Cookie Monster at 123 Sesame Street from the AC360 archive.

And another of Elmo with Anderson Cooper! Both equally cute! ;)

And this article on CNN is a good read on how some of the Muppets characters came about. I think Oscar would look every inch the rebel even if he was bright orange, but his olive green fur does actually give the impression that he lives in a trash can and is an old grouchy monster. Did I happen to mention that I love Kermit the frog too?

In a seemingly connected, but actually disconnected, matter altogether, this below is a cool video to watch! It's the Muppets' take on Bohemian Rhapsody - I just love it!

As a quirky dessert to finish off this post, here's a twist on Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Elmo and Grover. Someone really had a lot of time to cook up this terrorist spoof picture!