I Fell in Love at the Age of 5 with an Unlikely Character – “Cookie Monster”

Both my parents worked, so from the age of about 5, I was dropped off at KinderCampus daycare near Baseline Road in Little Rock at about 7 a.m. Monday through Friday. For those in Saline County, it might interest you to know that before Little Rock, my family lived in Bryant for a short time in the 70s and I attended Papoose Palace a daycare that sat where Indian Springs Baptist Church sits now. But that’s another subject.

It may surprise some that a daycare even had a television in its classroom. Its use was limited, even in the early 70s. But we could watch AETN and only AETN until 8 a.m., when the regular school day started with the pledge of allegiance. We also had TV time in the afternoons – seems like it started at 5 p.m. until whenever your parents picked you up. Whatever time it was, it meant that there were two chances in a day to watch Sesame Street.

I sat cross-legged daily, as close as I could possibly get to the colorful world inside that silver box with great round dials on it. There was competition among the viewing audience for a good seat up front, but I was one of the earlier arrivals at daycare, so that worked in my favor. Sometimes, I was the first to arrive and I could be the one to turn on the TV myself. There was a pull knob and once you tug on that, you hear a surge of static come to the screen. Wait for about 5 seconds and the screen lights up completely. The volume started low – 2, 3, 4 – as the teachers weren’t terribly awake yet. But as more children traipsed in, chattering about their this-and-thats – 5, 6 – the volume needed adjusting several irritating times. These adjustments to higher volumes – 7 – are quite necessary, to – 8 – overcome pesky humans that dared to encroach upon the scheduled program – 9 – the flow of entertainment, the – 10 – processing of information.

“SHHHHHHHHH!!” the teacher would say, and all the kids would copycat, “SHHHHHH!!” until that noise was louder than the TV and the chatter put together.

Those chattering kids didn’t understand. They’d interrupted what, for me, was the tike equivalent of morning coffee, only with numbers, words in English and Spanish, and everyday conundrums to solve. As a sponge for both knowledge, and the corny comedy that this masterpiece of a production provided, I needed my complete Sesame Street, and woe to thee what dost besmirch my daily intake!

I felt passionately about the characters. I had my favorites and then those who I disliked, but I learned about life from them all. The one I thought of as the host was the friendly yellow giant, Big Bird. He gave us a tour of the neighborhood and we would follow him to Mr. Hooper’s store or to the apartments where human characters Bob, Gordon, Susan, Maria and Luis lived. These people were like aunts and uncles to me. Really, like a family member that definitely would have gotten a big, sticky-faced hug, had I ever met any of them.

Big Bird introduced us to a dirty, matted green resident in the neighborhood – Oscar the Grouch, who I did not like. What a whiner! What a negative ninny! He hates everything! But that was the point, wasn’t it? Dealing with people who are actually that way and showing how it affects others when you are that way.

Big Bird also introduced us to a character larger than himself, but seemingly imaginary when he first came to the show. Snuffleupagus would show himself to Big Bird and only Big Bird for a number of episodes, and it gave me such stress that no one believed Big Bird that there really and truly was a live mastodon roaming their New York City block. I was sad for Big Bird and angry at Snuffy for ditching him. It hurts as a child when you’re telling the truth and you’ve no way to prove it. I felt helpless for Big Bird. I probably developed the habit of yelling at the TV from watching those few episodes until Snuffy came out to everyone.

◄ Image courtesy of Collider.com. Click image to enlarge.

Angry or stressed as I may have been over that experience, Sesame Street was shown in segments, so every few minutes, you’ll move to a different scene entirely, similar to a soap opera, switching between scenes and character sets at dramatic or cliffhanger moments. I say this to say that one handsome guy on the show could always turn over my giggle box. He was cool, charming, focused, and had so much in common with me. Well, one thing to be sure – a great undying love of cookies! The blue, husky, fluffy, gravelly-voiced charmer known as Cookie Monster was my very favorite character. He was certainly my crush in the most innocent way imaginable, and if there was a human boy like him, I’d have definitely married him.

Wonderfully funny and forthcoming as Cookie was, there were so many questions I had about him. Did he ever get any cookie bits inside of his mouth, or did it all just scatter in the floor after he hastily crammed them at his face? Didn’t his mom teach him to chew with his mouth closed? Did he think his mom was going to clean up those crumbs? What’s the deal with those furry fingers? Don’t they get fur in his mouth when he eats? How does he clip his fingernails? Does he have fingernails? How does he clean his ears? Wait. Where are his ears? Still, I loved him with all of my heart and terribly wished to have a cookie party with him.

There was another blue furry guy who seemed like the fraternal twin bro to Cookie, but somehow the coolness gene passed him by. Grover was a more svelte fellow by comparison, tidier than Cookie but more neurotic too. What came easily to Cookie, Grover had to work hard to achieve. Grover had impeccable diction, while Cookie just blabbed thoughts, not even considering the correct form of a pronoun. He called himself “me,” but never “I.” Cookie bopped along, living life as it provided for his every need; meanwhile, Grover toiled as a clumsy waiter in an upscale restaurant. He never could get an order right and dealt with considerable frustration due to a regular customer whose persnickety demands often sent Grover into a tizzy.

I felt bad for Grover. Why was life so hard for him? Maybe the show producers sensed this concern from their audience, because they decided to give Grover the role of a lifetime – as Super Grover! Oh boy, just think… he was going to be able to fly and he would be a respected member of society and would no longer live in Cookie’s very cool shadow! Well all that didn’t happen for Grover either. He wasn’t good at flying or helping the man on the street. As a blue hurtling soprano screamer, stumbling over his cape, in pratfalls Chevy Chase could only dream of pulling off, Grover was no better as a hero than he was at delivering soup through a swinging kitchen door. However, he looked great in a bowtie and also in a cape. Even with his faults, he was easily my second favorite character.

Number three favorite was a guy who had a great singing voice if not hairstyle, loved to giggle, loved playing in the bathtub and was just chill about everything. Not much could unhinge Ernie. Not even his nasal, nagging neatnick of a roommate, Bert. Bert was intolerable in that he continuously considered Ernie intolerable. Any little creative idea or punny joke that Ernie offered, Bert was all about harshing that vibe. His love of pigeons and paperclips just made him more of a pariah, and it’s no wonder he couldn’t sleep at night. Sheep were probably too irritated to be counted by him. But Ernie flowed with it. He was a great lesson in patience.

I have my thoughts about other characters, Kermit, Guy Smiley, Count Count (who actually frightened me a little at first) and those yip yip guys who wanted to answer the phone so badly… I also liked the variety features – the talking typewriter on wheels that went “noony, noony, noony,” the Picture Pages segment with the musical pen, and the girl that remembered by repeating as she walked to the store, to get “a loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter.”

I wonder if you watched this show like I did, maybe for yourself or with your child. Maybe you fell headlong for some other show and its characters. Who are your favorites and why?