The Bad Influence of The Street

I was playing with my older daughter today, and she reminded me of how impressionable young children can be and how they learn things from television. One of her current favorite children's shows is Team Umizumi (I think I spelled that correctly), which is a great show that teaches little kids some math basics. It teaches them to recognize number patterns, count and some basic geometric shapes. She has started to look for repeated patterns in our home, like the knives and forks set out on the table, and she will explain the patterns and say "like Team Umizumi." That's cool. It's not like when I was growing up, when I had the insidious Sesame Street that turned me into a hoodlum. Watch this shocking vintage clip from the Street...



Can't you see what terrible things this might make a young, impressionable child do? No? Well back in my early days (late 70's, so I was about 5 or 6), I watched this clip you just viewed of Cowboy X. We were getting our house painted at the time, and I was playing outside in the driveway and noticed some paint cans sitting out by the painters' truck. I thought Cowboy X was awesome (I always have liked the bad guys), and so I decided that I would be Cowboy X too. I took a paint can and brush, walked down our street, and painted X's on the street, sidewalk, neighbors' cars. (ANCIANT recently posted on his blog about the juvenile delinquents next door throwing mud at his house...I wonder if he would have liked having a young Dez living down the street!)

I guess I got bored or ran out of paint, so I returned home and proudly told my parents that I was Cowboy X and showed them an example of my handiwork. I was a bit surprised and disappointed that they were not pleased. I don't think they even got angry with me, as this was beyond even that. It was more shock and then fear of financial ruin. They turned on the painters for leaving the paint out unattended. I remember me, my parents and the painters all sneaking around the neighborhood in a group. I had to point out each X that I had painted, and they did their best to clandestinely remove them.

I can't really recall any repercussions, as I already realized it was pretty bad and even as a five or six year old, I was apologetic. My parents and the painters didn't want to get sued, so they were more concerned with the work at hand than being angry with me. Fortunately I think I had confessed quickly enough to where the paint hadn't dried anywhere yet.

The lesson here is to be very careful what you allow your children to watch on television. And for God's sake, keep them away from Sesame Street.