Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

But seriously, can you? I'm still searching.

Sesame Street is my TV watching origin story. I can remember how it would come on, I’d hear the theme song and I’d just run over to the TV ready to be mesmerized for the next few hours. I mean I don’t think the show was that long, but I can remember thinking that at the time that my entire morning was spent with Big Bird, Snuffy, and Oscar.

I remember being pulled in, engaged and tricked into learning things like numbers, colors, emotions, and elements of grammar. I really felt like I was in another world.

As a kid, I didn’t know what was going on in the world in the 80s. I didn’t know about the growing inequality between rich and poor. I didn’t know how racism impacted the world I lived in. I didn’t know that people with different genders had different rights. I did know that watching TV was the one thing that my family did together. After being apart during the day, television was something that brought us together. It was usually showing the news or some sitcom that was aimed at my parents. But when Sesame Street came on it was like the voices on that box were finally talking to me and I noticed.

Sesame Street B.E. (Before Elmo)

One of my favorite parts of Sesame Street was that there were segments of just kids being kids in between visits with Bert and Ernie. Kids on the playground. Kids going shopping with their parents. I’d see of kids in New York, but also in other parts of the world. I’d see kids of all different races, ethnicities, sizes, shapes and abilities playing together, learning from each other. I’d see parents having conversations with their kids trying to explain what the world is like. It was a glimpse at something I didn’t see every day and I couldn't get enough.

After all that, it would we’d hang out with our favorite Jim Henson muppet pals. They were all so different. Oscar was one of my favorites because he complained about everything and was still loved by those around him. Big Bird was so curious and adults took time to explain things to him. I totally missed that Snuffy was an imaginary friend for decades that’s how much I believed in him. Bert and Ernie were also my best friends. I loved how Ernie was so adventurous and creative and Bert loved pigeons and paper clips. Kermit was amazing because he was green and sang about what it felt like to be different. I mean I really loved them.

We can’t forget about the humans that lived on Sesame Street. Gordon, Susan, Linda, Maria, Luis, Bob - these were the aunts and uncles I never had. Especially Gloria and Carlos. I’m half Mexican and never really learned Spanish at home. Seeing Maria and Luis on television and teaching Spanish and elements of hispanic culture really tapped into something I needed. Linda also made a huge impact on me. She was deaf and signed with everyone on Sesame Street. Everyone took the time to learn what she was saying and make sure she felt like part of the Sesame Street community. I always loved that. I also loved learning some ASL along the way.

So, I grew up watching this utopia on television, thinking that this is what the Real World had in store for me. I went out and applied this worldview to the world. Be kind. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have emotions. People may speak different languages, but we all have things in common. It’s okay be scared of things. It’s okay to not like things.

Reality Boulevard

Turns out, not everyone watched Sesame Street. Not everyone saw the world the same way I did. And I know that on some level Sesame Street was trying to prepare me for that, but I totally missed that message. It was really hard for me when I’d be out on a playground and I wasn’t being included like the kids I saw on TV. Or when I’d share that I had some emotion and it wasn’t validated. I didn’t understand when I saw people being hated because they were different. This was and still is kind of hard for my inner child to process. She longs for the belonging she saw modeled on Sesame Street.

Do I regret spending so much time on Sesame Street? NO WAY! I am so grateful for the values that it instilled in me and the vision of the world it put in front of me. As I’m typing this I’m thinking this kinda sounds like a religion. And there’s probably something to unpack there. For now, I’m just happy that I lived on earth the same time as Sesame Street.

P.S.

• Sesame Street is on TikTok and if you’re not following them, I highly recommend it. The content is focused on our (gen x / millennial) inner children helping us understand that life is still complicated and they are still trying to figure out too. They haven’t left us. It makes me cry. For real.
• Also, who can forget how Elmo broke the internet by asking us how we are doing. We still need Sesame Street all these years later.
• One of my favorite kid segments was song called “Me and My Llama”. It was a song about a girl who took her llama to the dentist in New York City. Like think about this, she had a llama as a pet AND walked it down the street to go to the dentist. New York is so cool and this was so weird!
• Remember that one time Big Bird went to Japan?
• Don’t even get me started on Follow that Bird - that’s a whole other post
• I highly recommend creating a playlist of your favorite Sesame Street moments for a rainy day.