As a kid, I was a bit chatty. As a kid. ha. So to save her nerves and likely tympanic membranes, my mother frequently called on my love of playing "pretend" (also known as BFA training at NYU at 50k./year....sorry, folks) and would engross me in a game of pretending to be Linda. Linda, you may recall, was the deaf character on Sesame Street who communicated with American Sign Language. Apparently it worked. I shut up for a bit, and my mother unknowingly grew my love of playing pretend, which I now act upon with costumery, daily life soundtracks, and imaginary director screen shots of the world around me.
I could draft an essay on the things I learned about from Sesame Street. Other than ASL, I started playing the violin because I saw Itzhak Perlman perform on Sesame Street.
In other words, Sesame Street is amazing. Or at least was amazing in 1984.
I came across the following 2 links on the facebook page of the Milk Truck. How cool to see Big Bird learn about nursing! And who doesn't love and cherish Maria? The first clip is from even before I was born (yes, waaaaay back in 1977). That year, approximately 45% of mothers breastfed in the hospital, and 20% were still nursing at 6 months. When I was born (1981) those numbers were up a bit to 57% and 25% respectively. When my brother was born in 1986 (when I was learning about "where babies come from" and watching my mom nurse him) the 6 month estimate had dropped back closer to 20%.
Congratulations Sesame Street for being so open and cool about nursing.
I am looking forward to watching the show with Mathilda and hope it is as enriching, informative, and inspirational as it was when I was growing up. And let's face it, I'm still growing up. Follow that bird!
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