Classic Sesame Street

This past Thanksgiving, I was watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. As the Sesame Street Float made its way down 34th & 7th, I noticed one thing: all the human regulars on Sesame Street are still there, but THEY HAVE GOTTEN OLD.

Nearly 40 years after its inception, Sesame Street still delights young children. These days, Elmo (who actually has a part of the show devoted to him) and Abby Cadabby rule the block:

Video: Elmo with Abby Cadabby

Things were different when I was little. We had Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Betty Lou, Prarie Dawn, Grover, Forgetful Jones, Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, The Count, Guy Smiley, Oscar, Telly Monster, The Yip Yips...the list goes on. I would like to direct the spotlight to some old Sesame Street Regulars. Some still around, others have gone by.

Roosevelt Franklin was a very popular character in the early days of Sesame Street. He was gone by the time I was watching the show, but I do remember this song being on a cassette compilation of Sesame Street songs that I had:

Word has it that Roosevelt Franklin was taken off the air because he wasn't considered to be politically correct. Ironically, this video is devoted to addressing stereotypes about Africa:

Nonetheless, he served as a major inspiration for Franklin Delano, the puppet of Gob Bluth on Arrested Development:

Here's another one I found surfing YouTube. This video stresses the importance of "Raising Your Hand". Catchy song, too:

For many years, I thought the next video stereotyped people who lived in cities as greasers. In fact, Sesame Street was paying homage to Bruce Springsteen, and in particular, his song "Born To Run":

Catching Up

I've been very busy going back and forth between my mother's house and to Ithaca to work. During the week, I stay with a friend, and on the weekends, I come back to my mother's house. I'm hoping to get a place of my own, just for next month. I'm looking into house-sitting, or renting a room for a month. Where I am right now is a little cramped, and I just want my own space for a little while.

On Thursday, I went to my Aunt and Uncle's house outside Rochester for Thanksgiving. We used to go to their place all the time for Thanksgiving, and this was our first time in five years. I had fun seeing my cousins, and my cousin's children: her daughter is a riot, and her son, while only three months old, looks twice that age and can actually hold his head up. Later on that day, we went to my cousin's house, where we had pie and hung around more babies.

I really didn't do much Friday and Saturday, except that I did clean, and looked for the hard drive that had Are You From Bingo? on it. When I will return this weekend, I will look for it some more.

Speaking of Are You From Bingo?, The Finger Lakes Times ran a piece on the DVD Fundraiser. I did the interview Monday and Friday. It's pretty lengthy, with a couple of pictures from the movie. Now that I'm a little more settled, I'm hoping to put more of my energy into this DVD. If I could only find that Hard Drive...