Today’s episode of “This Just In” is brought to you by the letter “G.”
“G” is for “gratitude” and for “grief.”
Last week, Emilio Delgado (Sesame Street’s long time fix-it man, Luis) passed away at 81 from multiple myeloma, according to his family – his real family.
Delgado played Sesame Street’s Luis starting in 1971, and it’s hard to imagine that he and Maria (his character’s wife, played by actress Sonia Manzano) are not still in their 30s and trying to teach Oscar the grouch to have some manners.
Delgado and Manzano were among the first Latino actors to portray people who were ordinary Americans. People with jobs, loving families and fascinating stories to tell.
“We weren’t dope addicts. We weren’t maids or prostitutes, which [was] the way we were being shown in television [and] film,” Delgado told the Houston Chronicle. “Here, on ‘Sesame Street,’ there were different people who spoke different languages and ate interesting foods, and they were all Americans.”
That breakthrough points out how long ago 1971 was and even more so – how radical Sesame Street was in its concept. I can’t offer any data to prove it, but I know my children would be different people if not for Sesame Street. I know this because I would not have turned out as well as a parent. I am deeply grateful for Sesame Street.
When I was raising my children (starting in the early 1980s), I relied on Sesame Street (and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) for stimulation for the kids as well as the occasional respite for Mommy – let’s be real. The programming was directed at them, but I long ago concluded that this was the genius of Sesame Street … a lot of it was really for me.
Sure, I already knew how to count to 10, but largely because of Count VonCount, I came to know that counting things was FUN. As a “walking around in the world” activity, we could count things while waiting in line at the grocery store or in otherwise dull situations. Add the Count’s signature laugh (“ah ah ah”) and everything is more interesting.
When my Brian was still a preschooler, my sister-in-law was pregnant with her first child. He asked about this process along the way – about babies growing in the mommy and how the baby is born. I was a natural childbirth educator at the time – that part was easy.
One day, he asked how that sperm got to the egg. For him, this was a simple question, asked in the car while driving home from Raleigh one evening. For us, it was a little blush-producing, but we answered simply and directly. Brian’s response … oh, ok.
Sesame Street’s real impact was that the program never talked down to children. They didn’t treat them like small adults – that would be inappropriate (and ineffective). They tackled very challenging topics (as did Fred Rogers) like death and racism. They did this sensitively and simply, but without anything more than the straight truth. When actor Will Lee (who played Mr. Hooper, the storekeeper on the show) died of a heart attack in late 1982, the producers decided to have his character die instead of writing him out or recasting the role.
This made possible an explanation of the permanence of death – that it means we won’t see Mr. Hooper ever again and that it’s okay to feel very sad about this. We feel grief in part because we loved him so much, the adults tell Big Bird. Remembering him and talking about him help ease our pain, but they don’t mean that we won’t miss him. Even Luis, with all his talent in fixing toasters and squeaky doors, can’t fix that.
I’ve often wondered what the spark was in my son that got him to be the fix it guy that he is. (Once, his washer wasn’t working and he took it apart, found a quarter in the drain, removed it and … the really impressive part … he put it BACK TOGETHER … and it worked!)
Due credit to YouTube for the zillions of instructional videos out there. If you’ve broken something, someone out there probably did it first. The use of television and the Internet to make all of us independent and lifelong learners was the vision of Sesame Street. Maybe even navigation systems …
I asked Siri … “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” Her answer: “Consult your local Public Broadcasting System television for details, but it can be found where it’s a sunny day, sweeping the clouds away, where the air is sweet and everything’s A-OK.”
Featured photo via PBS/Courtesy Everett Collection, photo by Richard Termine.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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