BOY ON A RED STOOL

Boy on a Stool
12" x 16"
acrylic on canvas

Sunny Days sweeping the clouds away
On my way to where the air is clear
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street…
How to get to Sesame Street…

Any man or woman in his thirties, or even late twenties, would flash a fast smile whenever the words to this song are sung. Who wouldn’t? Considering that this kiddie show embodied a million and one fun mornings, or afternoons, for every child glued to a tv set more than twenty years ago.

Cookie Monster, Kermit the Frog, The Count, Grover… and so many other members of this colorful denizen of patched-up dolls with moving mouths and funny limbs filled up childhood fantasies with the delights of learning how to count, do their a-b-c’s and just simply have an uproarious time. I particularly loved Mr. Snufflelupuckus and how he’s been able to trudge along that street unseen for the longest time. (Until now, I honestly still am unsure if I could ever spell his name right.)

I remember asking my mother once if we could just simply move to this street with the huge yellow bird sitting on his nest in somebody’s back lot. I couldn’t accept the truth then that we couldn’t simply ride a jeep, take my pajamas with me and just move to Sesame Street. My mother was even unsure in which city in the US the show or the street was. To my chagrin, I can only live along Sesame Street in my mind.

____________

Wiggy was watching with his brothers Postman Pat on tv. During a brief commercial break he turned to me asking, "Tito Dan, why are you singing that song? And where is Sesame Street?"

"It’s a show your daddy and I used to watch on tv much like what you’re watching right now."

"Oh, like Pat and and his cat? Is it a nice place?"

"Yeah. Really nice. And fun too. We used to watch it and later on we’d be talking about the muppets. You know, like the puppets I once did and used to show you guys in the pictures."

"Hahahaha… Tito Dan. It must be funny seeing you actually watching puppets on tv. You and daddy are too big and too old for that."

When Postman Pat went back on, he turned around on the red stool and fixed his gaze again on that puppet’s black van rolling on a hillside road. Someday, he too will be singing that mailman’s theme song to a kid who will laugh at how funny it is to see a grown man watching puppets.

C is for cookies, that’s good enough for me. Yeah!
C is for cookies, that’s good enough for me. Yeah!
Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C…