My Life as a Furry Red Monster - Kevin Clash [46]
The video opens with Grover dressed as a mail carrier. He’s given the assignment of delivering a package to Oscar the Grouch and sets off from the Mail It center. “I’m a monster with a mission,” he says, making his way down the block. Sesame Street is teeming with activity, but Grover is not to be deterred; he sees everyone from Alan to Zoe but can’t stop to chat. “I have no time to dilly-dally!” Nearly exhausted from the effort, he reaches Oscar’s can.
It turns out the package is from Elmo. Inside is a picture he’s made and a note from his mom, which Oscar reads out loud: “ ‘Elmo drew this picture of Dorothy and accidentally spilled some spaghetti dinner on it. I thought you would like it.’ Like it, heh, I LOVE it. The kid’s a genius. Look,” Oscar says, admiring the glob of pasta and sauce on the drawing. “Mixed media! Where is the little red menace?”
From that point forward, it’s a look at Sesame Street from Elmo’s point of view, as the action shifts to the set of “Elmo’s World” and he meets and interacts with the residents on Sesame Street.
Elmo considers them all friends, and he even laughs when Oscar tells him to get lost. (“Elmo loves Oscar!” he says. “Oh, yuck,” groans the grouch.) Elmo is his usual upbeat self, but there’s an extra spring in his step and gleam in his eye, since he’s been thinking about Sesame Street and finding ways to welcome every one of his friends into his world. Dorothy has a Sesame Street sign in her bowl. His TV is tuned to the Grover, Maria, Big Bird, and All Elmo’s Friends Channel. Mr. Noodle shows the audience how to eat a cookie like Cookie Monster. Super Grover takes Elmo on a sweet and funny journey through the past, “to the Sesame Street that was!” And finally Elmo returns to his world, still thinking of his friends. Some, like Bert and Ernie, he doesn’t see as often as others, like Zoe and Telly. That doesn’t matter; whether they live just around the corner or miles and miles away, whether they are monsters or grouches, birds or bears, they’re all his friends. All he has to do is think of them, and they’re right there beside him.
And that’s the way I feel about friends—you can always pick up just where you left off, whether you see each other every day or twice a year, whether you have a million pals or a handful of close companions, whether you know them from childhood or work or the corner grocery.
Maybe you can’t be together as much as you’d like, but there are so many ways to stay in touch. Even the simplest gestures—doing a small favor, making a quick phone call, sending a note or a photo or even a spaghetti-stained package—can bring joy and make you feel connected. Like Elmo, you can keep your friends close, just by thinking of them.
IN MY FAMILY, we defined “cooperation” as “four children sleeping in a single bedroom.” I’ve heard friends and colleagues fussing about having had to share a room with another sibling, but try tripling that. And let’s just remember that our last name was Clash.
Nevertheless, we managed to find space for Ne-Ne’s interest in modern dance, Georgie’s sports fanaticism, my puppetry, and Pam’s increasing Barbie collection, all shoehorned into a space we somehow divided up and enjoyed.
Maybe in exchange for having to share a room, our parents gave us a free hand when it came to decorating our domain. We were children of the 1970s, so we painted the walls with fluorescent paint—pink, lime green, yellow. Ne-Ne loved black-light posters, and in addition to staring at glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the ceiling, we drifted off to the nuclear glow of “Love Power!” and R. Crumb’s “Keep on Trucking” as well as images of bands like the Jackson Five. The black-light glow and neon colors made me feel like I was living in a lava lamp.
We each carved out our own niche in the room. I had some puppets and supplies there, but the overflow of my creations spilled onto the yellow shelves in my parents’ bedroom. George favored football and basketball posters; Dr. J floated in that spectral light always about to jam the ball through