Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, My Mother, and I
On Mother’s Day, there are many things that remind me of why my mother, Anne Gray, is totally awesome. But I’ll share a media-centric one:
I am a child of Sesame Street, and I say this proudly. I watched a lot of Sesame Street as a child. These were the days before the wonderful Jim Henson died, before the freaky and annoying Elmo moved in, long before Cookie Monster went veggie, and before Mr. Snuffleupagus was visible to the adults on the street.
It’s that last part that’s important to this story here. I’m told that the writers eventually made Snuffy visible in part out of fear that kids wouldn’t share important things with their parents if they saw adults continually refuse to believe in Snuffy’s existence. And for sure, I shared Big Bird’s frustration that nobody believed in his imaginary friend … because my mum had a little game whereby she quite artfully turned her back or left the room momentarily whenever Mr. Snuffleupagus was on the screen. She’d then come back and I’d tell her Snuffy was there, hadn’t she seen him? Always the answer came, “No. Who is ‘Mr. Snuffleupagus’?”
Maybe the writers were right to make Snuffy visible to all, but telling my mum important things was never a problem for me. I do love, though, how she gave me this small bond with Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, realizing how identification with them could be fun and playful, and letting me have a private relationship with them. Perhaps I’m adding this in retrospect, but my memory, moreover, is that I knew she knew Snuffy existed, but that she continued to turn her back or look away as a small joke. It was a trusting joke, no less, one that let me know that it was okay to have my own relationship with TV characters, and a joke that I see as a symbol of how close she’s always been to me, and yet how much she’s always been willing to let me have my own space. It’s also a joke of which she doesn’t even remember being a part when I discuss it with her now, a fact that makes it all the more wonderful a story for me of how superb she is, since it shows how effortless her brilliant parenting can be.
So today, I’m sure Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus (and Grover and Kermit, no doubt!) join me in wishing my mum a Happy Mother’s Day.
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