February 11, 2014
Like pretty much all of us, I grew up on Sesame Street. Because of that show I can count, I can read, I can spell, I can live a garbage can like Oscar the Grouch. So what did I learn from public school? How to cut class.
But I recently had opportunity (I was bored) to watch a very, very old episode from Sesame Street’s second season in 1970. Wow, the 70’s were a very different time. And Sesame Street? Full of trash. It was a total pigsty!
Ok, you expect some trash when one of the main characters is a filthy green hobo, but this is excessive. What’s with all the burlap? What’s with all the crates? I don’t get it. But it gets worse.
Look at the ground- there is trash everywhere! Under the mailbox, piled up by the newsstand, all around the people’s feet. Doesn’t anyone on the block have a broom?
Look at the background, behind the cool cat- more crates! What is in all these boxes just scattered around? And Bert and Ernie are standing in front of an old shipping pallet. Are there a lot of warehouses on Sesame Street?
And that wall in the back- filthy and full of soot. Is that a foundry? A rendering plant? A smelter? I hope none of kids picked up black lung disease. (BTW- that is not a flattering picture of Big Bird.)
Since then, Sesame Street has gotten a lot cleaner. I think it was some sort of federal government urban renewal project.
All this is proof, I think, that Sesame Street is in New York. NYC was pretty dirty back in the 70’s too.
.
.
I always assumed the show took place in Harlem or thereabouts, but in watching the first Christmas special with my kids recently, I noticed that the gang exited the subway at 86th Street after ice skating and walked back to Sesame Street. (Also, Maria and David were very explicitly getting romantic on the train.)
LikeLike
Ah… http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_(location)
LikeLike
Honestly, I made my “idealized with trash” comment before reading this! Honest!
BTW- more Sesame Street tomorrow. (I’m stuck in a rut.)
LikeLike
I always assumed it was around that part of NYC, but a semi-idealized version, trash and all.
LikeLike
Remember the episode when the garbage men took Oscars trash can? That one kinda scared me for some reason.
What a wuss I was.
LikeLike