When my beautiful son was a baby I got him a Big Bird, when he was 2 I got him the Bed Time Big Bird, it came with tapes and books,  so the child could read along with the Talking Big Bird.

Thanks to Sesame Street both my kids were counting before 4, reading by 4, and new how to speak spanish to some extent.

When my Son was small I started buying him the cast iron character cars and the carry case, he used them until he was about 9 (transformers came along), well when he and his wife moved into their first home my house warming gift was his Big Bird and his set of cars.

A few days after that he called to tell me how much those cars were worth, I had no idea when I bought them they’d be a collectors item 25 years later.

I knew my children were learning watching Sesame Street and I allowed them to watch it all they wanted.

Thanks for the memories Joan and Sesame Street. :)

I want to say "WHY TO GO YANKEES"

I’m from south of N. Falls NY a little town called Angola, and I’m a Yankees fan, I’ve never been to an actual game but I enjoy watching them on TV.

My son is a Mets fan, but then again it’s a NY team.

Yeah YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deber, when I left home and joined the Navy pot smoking was done everywhere.  You couldn’t go to a concert with out getting high just because your in the same Auditorium as them.  My older sister took me to a concert when I was 16 and told me if I didn’t try her pot cigarette she was going to leave me there.  I wouldn’t and she left me in Canada with no way home.  After leaving home I found out she had turned my younger siblings on to smoking it (nine and ten yrs younger then me), two of those siblings still smoke the stuff.

I tried it a few times when I was young and I didn’t like the way it made me feel, in fact I hated the way it made me feel, the hangover was worse then from booze.

The only time in my life I smoked Pot on a regular basis was when I was going through chemo, and I’ll be honest, I hated it, but it was the only thing that kept me from ralphing nonstop, and it helped me to eat, because for six months I couldn’t eat without it.  But once the chemo/radiation was over with, whatever was left was flushed and I’ve not smoked any since.

I don’t think it should be legal, it’s bad enough we have drunk drivers on the road, we don’t need stoned ones as well.

Frannie, I’ve been praying for your son’s safe passage home, I’m extremely happy for both you and him.  As we have spoke before you know I was in the Navy, He’ll have some adjustments to make when he gets home.  Some advice if I may, I don’t know If he lives with you or if he’s married, you never said, but here goes:

1.  Make him his favorite foods

2.  Listen if he needs to talk, and please for your sake, don’t ask questions, let him come to you, many troops who are coming home don’t have a supportive family that will allow them to talk and just be there to listen.

3.  Give him all the time he needs to get back into the swing of things, if he’s lucky he will be able to get right back into living outside the military.

4.  Just show him how much you love him, and leave the healing up to him and who ever he calls his "Higher Power", only give advice when asked.

War takes a lot out of our troops, some bounce right back, others take time.  Have the local VA hospital number handy just in case it is needed.  For both physical and mental health.

 I’m really very happy for you and I’ll be praying for your son.

As for Ms. Clinton I prefer to see a woman in service to her country wear a dress, skirt once in a while, it shows she’s famine, Even in the Military women have to wear skirts, especially those working in an embassy, on recruiting duty, in parades, it’s required. Remember back to the Clinton era, many thought she was gay, while being gay doesn’t bother me one way or the other, some in the media thought she looked butch.

R. J., first thank you for the education, I really didn’t know what it meant.

Second, I will bend on the skirt, dress issue, but Mrs. Clinton does dress properly, but couldn’t she mix it up some, pant suits went out in the eighty’s.  Just an update to her wardrobe would be a good thing.

She was the rep.  for my home town area in NY and she did a semi-good job (by saying that I mean she wasn’t in office long enough to keep her promises to the people, she was running for Pres.  and that took all of her time.)

The Gorilla statement was over the top, and why I chose that image I don’t know, might have been my trip to the zoo the day I made the comment.

But she needs to update her wardrobe for no one but herself.

R.J., I agree to an extent.  But when you go to an office and the first person you see is a nicely dressed male or female, the person entering gets it’s first impression of the business/agency from the first encounter they make.

When I was working my cloths were an issue, we were given a dress code and we did not dare try anything new.  Especially when we were meeting with those in authority, we needed to make a good impression.  Men wear suits mostly, especially those in the gov’t, or gov’t contractors, doctors offices, and if your lucky enough to have a job that has a lack dress code be grateful.  Think   about the kids and older Americans who work at McDonalds, Walmart, Kmart, they all have strick dress codes, and some uniforms.  Then you have doctors and nurses who wear scrubs, or uniforms and they have to wear them, but when their out in the public eye most dress to the nines to show pride in themselves.

Being educated and holding a good job is the dream of all people I’ve known through out my life and if a uniform isn’t required then they dress nice so people can see the pride they have for themselves and the jobs they perform.

I wore a Navy Uniform for years and when I went to work at the for the government I dressed to show my pride in myself and my accomplishments.  When I’d get off work I had to go home and change for my second job at Sears and put on an entirely different outfit, when working for the Military non-active duty you are expected to wear clothes that are up to the standards of the active duty military, and then working at Sears I’d be over dressed and have to go and dress down for my shift.

I know first hand from being a government employee working with people in power and as a Mom of two kids dressing for whatever situation I’d find myself in.  Clothes do say an awful lot about the person, male or female. They show our bosses, subordinates, children, church family how we view ourselves.

Sorry Rachel, first I don’t know what IMHO means, second I’m not discounting her abilitys as a statesperson, or her accomplishments.  But she’s wears PANTS suits more then any other woman in the public eye has ever done.  A nice dress, or a skirt suit, maybe even a nice print, but that coat she wore, and the oh so plain, drab outfits, she needs a stylist.  Granted Jackie O was a First lady but she was the Best Dressed First Lady in our time.  Clinton needs to take a page out of her style book. 

R.J. people in this country live to see what so in so is wearing, mostly because we can.  Most of us will never be able to dress like the movie stars or politicians and their spouses, so we dream, and when we see someone in the public eye wearing such horrible cloths and were given a chance to say something we do.

I was a professional woman my entire adult working life, and I dressed as well as my income and family obligations afforded.  I achieved equality in my field, both in rank and pay, and now I can sit back and laugh at the pretty lady in the ugly cloths.

Would you wear a gunny sack and expect to be treated with respect?  Go on national TV w/ one on and see the reaction you get.  Many of these women look to the public to let them know how we perceive them and their cloths.

Jackie O. was a perfect example of exactly what I’m saying, she set the trend for all the following women in the role of First Lady and a nation changed the way they dressed to mirror her.

We had a milk man up to the time I was a senior in College 1979, he brought eggs, milk, butter, cottege cheese, juice and mom always got this hughe gallon jug that sit on it’s side with a pour spout.  I never went to the store for milk as a kid or young adult.

I miss those days, life was simpler and easier and I felt much safer back then.

Nice to see Mans/Woman’s best friends are so loved and such a big part of many American families have a book dedicated to them.

Now all we need is a BOOK of photos of our four legged friends who are what we so warmly call them "Mutts", or "Mixed Breeds".  There just as deserving and loved.

We the fabric of this country will never be IMMUNE to car bombings, or bombings of any kind.  The first World Trade Bombing was a car bombing.  These people who build the bombs and bury them like a coffin knows just what their doing and how much pain it will cause not just to the family of those killed but to the every day Joe of America.

They go so far as brain washing young children, people of all class of people to blow themselves up in the promise of virgins in Heaven. People of the Middle East Get a Life, your being used to further greedy, nasty people who could care less for you and your families after you’ve committed suicide.

Were not IMMUNE, where sick to our Heart over the loss of so many innocent people, American and Arab alike.

I had a type writer when in high school and college, where my kids had computers.

cell phones weren’t even thought of, and wireless phones now way.  I remember once my parents had a fight and my stepfather cut the phone cord to keep my mom off the phone, she was down the street talking with her friends and I ran in with the receiver and told her she had a long distant call, without thinking she took the receiver and said hello.  lol who would have thought that in just 15 yrs we’d have phones that we could walk all over the house with, talk in cars, at the stores.  Now a days you can’t go anywhere without seeing someone looking like a fool talking to himself when in fact he was actually talking on a phone.

technology is good to a point but some of it is really annoying.  In a movie, or while in church, in restaurants phones should be turned off out of courtesy for the other people around them.

You can keep your planes, I refuse to fly anywhere, I’ll drive for as many days as needed to get where I need to be, but you won’t get me on a plane, no way, no how.

Dear Liz,  I personally embraced computers when they came to be, I was a Petty Officer in the navy using the first computers to come around. They were huge and cumbersome and extremely difficult, within a few years they got smaller and much easier to use.  I had a very silly passion in High School and College and that was typing, so using a keyboard was second sense to me.  I type 110 words a minute.  And being in the Navy I had to adjust and learn all the technology that came around for the 26 yrs I served my country both as a Petty Officer and then as a gov’t employee.  I haven’t come across a piece of technology I haven’t’ been able to figure out on my own, my children are there to help me if I find something I cant get.

One wk from today I will turn 54 and when my children asked what I wanted for my birthday I was totally honest with them, "I don’t want or need anything", I told them if they choose to get me a gift make it something I will think of them when I look at it or use it.

On the negative side of turning 54, the military makes you put write the "date" as day, month, year,  now this wouldn’t upset or get most people antsy, but for me that makes my bday 9/11, as someone who was at the pentagon on that date, this wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. 

So do I stay in or go out on my bday?  this is my question to my children’s generation, not technical or generational question just one I’d like to see answered.

Lauriate thank you, I enjoy writing to you as well.  I only made it through one semester in French in high school then switched over to Spanish.  And I can only count in Spanish thanks to Sesame Street, lol.  My father named me but because he never had a son and I was the tomboy he called me Deni, and I’ve gone by that name my entire life.  I’ve a saying I say to people when I meet them, "Hi my name is Deni, not like the restaurant I don’t discriminate."  That has opened many doors for me, being able to use my name to remind people of the kind of prejudice there is in this country  and so they don’t forget what happened in Denny’s,

I never heard of the movie but I’ve put a search in place to locate it so I may see it myself.

Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to move your clocks back an hour.  Deni