sesame street premiered this day in 1969. that means sesame street has been on the air my entire life. i don’t remember watching it as a kid. i do remember watching the electric company and i remember the bugalloos, sigmund and the sea monster, h.r. pufnstuf, land of the lost… basically anything sid and marty krofft did – if you ask me those fellows are a couple of geniuses. oh, and i loved family affair and spent a good deal of the late 70′s and early 80′s convinced that my twin brother and i could be the wonder twins – if only he would have cooperated. but sesame street, don’t remember it at all.

the first time i can recall watching it is after i had tb (wow, seems i’ve noticed a little too late that i’ve chosen a rather unfortunate nickname for my oldest, oops). and man, sesame street was the bomb. i mean really, i just used having a kid as an excuse to watch it – i’d even watch it while he was napping. of course, he liked it, too. then came lb – she seemed to love it. we spent hours bonding in front of sesame street. counting with count von count, eating cookies with cookie monster, and laughing at ernie’s jokes (because they were so funny). things took a different direction with the arrival of ff – he was born not too long after the elmo’s world segments were introduced. he hated elmo, hate may not even be a strong enough word. i’m not even sure how to label his reaction, i mean a 9 month old who goes into a full rage when elmo appears on screen – what would you call that?

for a long time i was certain it was bad mothering. maybe it was something i’d eaten or inhaled when he was still in utero, or maybe i’d passed on something funky through my breast milk. i blamed myself, i knew it was my fault. then it hit me. i’m pretty sure that ff believed elmo was satan. and i don’t mean he thought he was devilish – you know, because he’s red. i mean i think ff believed elmo was the satan, as in beelzebub or lucifer, you know the one i’m talking about.

one year for christmas ff was given a tickle me elmo, talk about funny traumatic. it wasn’t just evil elmo, it was evil elmo cackling laughing. it created hours and hours of entertainment for the rest of the family sheer terror for ff. and i’m sure it will be cause for hours and hours of therapy later in life.

so, at our house, we probably won’t even mention the sesame street anniversary. it would be too cruel. but you guys party on.