I am so excited to have found this video on YouTube. I loved this cartoon from my Sesame Street/Electric Company years, and my brother and I can still make each other laugh reciting the girl’s shopping list. But I have never come across anyone else who remembers it. Despite many years of reminiscing about the TV world of my youth.
Seeing it again for the first time since I was very small, I’m amazed at the excellent animation — the mother’s hands, the constant motion of the little girl, the Oz-like mother in the thought bubble, the sparseness of the scenery. It’s very Ezra Jack Keats-ian in its use of texture, but unique in its messy sparseness. I love how the girl is instantly transported back to her house after her mission is complete. I love the blank food products with the filling-in names. I love it all over again. The only difference is now I get to share it with all of you!
As an interesting side-note, it seems like a few different people have told me very recently about some study (studies?) that was done that tests people’s memories and shows that most people hardly remember the full story about “things that happen.” Instead what we actually do is remember a few key details and fill in the blanks for everything else, thus creating what seems like a full memory but in fact is not.
In my world, I’m known as a person with fairly strong memory faculties. And yet, here I find an example of my own revisionist memory. I could swear this grocery list was “A loaf of bread; a bottle of milk; and a stick of butter.” I was sure that was what it said, such that I always thought it nostalgic that it was a bottle of milk rather than the more familiar carton. But! I totally made it up! What the hell? At what point did I revise that memory? Age 7? Where would I get bottle from? We weren’t drinking milk out of bottles then — it was the 70s!
Isn’t that weird? I think that’s weird.
Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!
wow, i remember it now that i see it again.
myself, i love the whole ’70s/jazz-infused flute/urban/black power aesthetic. it’s like an afro in animation form.
but most of all, i love the naturalistic voice track. getting a real kid, capturing her real ramblings…god, i love that in animation more than anything. (you can see hints of it in “Monsters, Inc.” in the voice of Boo, the little kid who “contaminates” them…also in an extra on the “Incredibles” DVD–“Jack-Jack Attack”, in the flashcard scene most of all. (It’s so great, we must have watched it in my house 2 dozen times.)
but this technique’s ultimate ancestor is the Hubley Studio’s film “Moonbird,” where animation pioneers John and Faith Hubley recorded their kids playing make-believe, then animated it. it’s just…too wonderful for words. (won an Oscar in 1959):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTgma3KJuSw
I love it! I totally remember this. But I remembered none of the details. And here’s what’s even weirder…I WAS drinking milk out of glass bottles in the 70s. From a dairy. And I’m not even kidding! And when I saw this then, I probably was all “what’s a container of milk?!” But I don’t remember.
I have never seen this cartoon. It’s so adorable! so simple and so cute.
This is one of my fondest childhood TV memories…that and Little House on the Prairie. Thanks for sharing this, can’t wait to send it to my husband.
I so totally remember this! But for the life of me, all I could remember of the grocery list was “..and a stick of butter.” I remembered it in my head with a Bronxy accent even. More like, “ana stick a butta.” *g*
I’ve been trying to tell my Sweetie about it for a bit, and he’d just give me this blank stare. Thanks so much for sharing the link! Now i have some thing I can actually show him.
What I need now are clips of the Electric Company (I think) cartoon with the old-fashioned typewriter on wheels. You remember him? Said ‘noodin-noodin-noodin’ alot… *G*
Thanks again!
Hi I owuld love to see this video but the link says it is no longer available. Please let me know if you can get it again.
Thanks,
Tula
I SOOOOO remember this from Sesame Street! And I feel the same way you do, no one else really remembered it but me!
And if this helps you as far as the revisionist memory; i’ve always remembered it as a “bottle” of milk as well. Did we both revise it, or was it updated to keep up with the times??? I’m an early 80’s baby, but I’m going to go with the latter…. VOICEOVER!
Thanks SO MUCH for posting this. My sister and I have repeated this to each other for years. Neither of us knew that the other remembered until one of us one day said “A load of bread…”, and the other said “A container of milk.” Sometimes we just say it to each other as we loved that cartoon so much.
As to Stacey, I’ve actually always said “a bottle of milk” as well, instead of “container.” May be it really was changed!
I REMEMBER THIS SO WELL!!!! And I could have also swore it was bottle of milk and stick of butta!
I checked with my childhood friend and we both remember it the same way…”a bottle of milk” . Definitely bottle!
It WAS “bottle of milk.” No question. You aren’t crazy.