Sesame Street Continues to Inspire Local Family

We moved into our present home in Lower Saucon Township in 1985. At the time, the oldest of our nine children, Grace, was only two months old. Grace became a Sesame Street enthusiast early on, and a particular fan of Ernie. Later, her brother Ben joined Grace as a regular viewer of the show. But shortly after Grace and Ben’s sister Clare was born, Mom and Dad chose to discontinue cable service, and the days of Sesame Street viewing in the Behe household were over.

That’s not to say that Sesame Street didn’t continue to inspire our family. Several times a day we would listen to “Bert and Ernie Sing-A-Long,” a record album we borrowed from the Bethlehem Public Library. We ended up renewing the album so often that eventually we decided to spare the librarian some work by purchasing our own audiotape of the recording. Over the years, Leo, Rose, Vincent, Dominic, Helen and Gerard--along with Grace, Ben and Clare--have all enjoyed listening to the tape, which to this day remains intact and playable (albeit a little fuzzy).

These days, Mike will occasionally break into his rendition of the Count’s “Bats in the Belfry,” or I might do my (very lame) imitation of Big Bird. But it’s Grace who, at age 26, remains the diehard Sesame Street devotee. So it’s only right that she’ll be in the Sesame Street Live audience on Saturday night, along with her husband Dan and her two youngest siblings, Helen and Gerard. And if the company onstage breaks into “Everyone Likes Ice Cream, “or “What’s the Name of That Song?” Grace will no doubt be singing along.

Editor's Note: at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem. She was one of 20 Patch readers entered into by commenting on this week's question, which was about the lessons instilled by Sesame Street.