E is for Electric!

When most folks think of preschool television, they think of Sesame Street and Elmo and Big Bird and the Muppet Characters. It makes sense Sesame Street is the long running kids program on American television. However, I think of another program.

Who remembers The Electric Company?  

Learning is fun

The Electric Company ran for six years in the U.S. from 1971 to 1977 and was aimed at elementary school kids aged 6–9 and intended to teach and supplemental reading instruction. Although the series used a variety of short segments and animated commercials much like Sesame Street, there was no one central set equivalent to Sesame Street as the primary starting point.

For eight-year-old me, it was great to have something dedicated to me and not my older brothers. I didn’t know their names at the times, but the show featured famous actors including Rita Moreno, Mel Brooks, and Morgan Freeman. I find it funny that I still think about the show. I suspect that’s in part to seeing Freeman over the years in many different roles and thinking back to when I first saw him.

In the memory vault

This is my long way of saying that I’m fascinated how our brains work and how we associate thoughts and memories. For example, present day me turns on the Netflix late one night, starts to watch a nature documentary on our universe and hears Freeman’s deep, distinctive voice, and instantly flashes back to a much younger Freeman acting silly on a long ago cancelled children’s show.

How do you explain that? I can’t, but it’s fascinating how the mind works.

Now if I could just remember everything on my list when I go to the grocery store or my own cellphone number when someone asks me for it, then I would be really be on roll.

Images by Pexels.