Bess and I were sharing our childhood career dreams at lunch today. I wanted to be a cashier at Meijer because I thought you got to keep the money that was handed to you. Nice gig, I thought, at age four. Bess wanted to be a tightrope walker. This was based on her obsession with a character she saw on a children’s show in the 80s. As she was describing it to me, the faintest of memories came back --yeah, it was live action puppets, and the cat was a tight-rope walker, and there was a dog and a lion, and a circus, and…We couldn’t remember what it was.
It was like my television memories were being held nicely for twenty years like water in a reservoir, until that one hole that I patched with gum had just sprung a leak. Then we consulted YouTube and the whole damn thing busted open. And I’m all, “YEAH! THIS WAS IT! TOTALLY…THIS..this…wow. This is sh*t is f*cked up.”
The more these memories come flooding back, the more I realize that a lot of the shows I watched as a kid were seriously creepy. Today’s Special, anyone?
[Link to video]
Then there was The Letter People. Readers, I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can tell you that the first day of Kindergarten in 1988, we watched The Letter People episode featuring Mr. M. Granted, by the time I got to Kindergarten I could already read. I like to imagine my five year old self, clad in Oshkosh B’gosh, sitting with crossed arms on the back row of floor mats and looking at my fellow classmates as if to say, “Can you believe this sh*t?”
Seriously — What was with the disturbing puppetry of the 70s and 80s?
What odd childhood memories of television have resurfaced for you lately?
July 1st, 2009 at 8:10 am
I watched Today’s Special ALL THE TIME!! I think it sparked my fear of store mannequins coming to life when everyone left and the lights went down. LOVED it!
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July 1st, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I loved the Letter People! I anticipated M because of my name and felt that it was the extra “special” letter. :)
Although Dumbo’s Circus premiered before I was born, the beginning of the intro where Dumbo is flying and looking down on the town and the feather boa cat are VERY familiar…
Our music teacher made us watch Wee Sing in Sillyville all the way up to sixth grade. I still remember some of the dance moves.
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July 16th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Holy hell. Today’s Special?! I may never have remembered that show if it hadn’t been for this. I also vividly remember the first time I saw “12″ on Sesame Street. Changed my life:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg&feature=related
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Jenn Reply:
July 16th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I remember that! Dude, that is a groovy jam. Like I’d put that on a cd for my morning commute.
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