Valerie wrote about kid’s TV shows over at her site, and I was going to interject in her comments, but this got pretty long. Besides that, it seems like I’m always a big downer over there, and didn’t want my Mr. Rogers info to bring everyone off their high.
Anyhow, concerning the Crayola factory that Mr. Rogers is famous for putting on display: I’ve actually been inside the Binney and Smith factory in Easton for a high-school fieldtrip.
It was a gifted class trip - we thought of creative ways to get the school to sponsor trips to some crazy places like the Pierce-DuPont house at Longwood Gardens, the Resorts casino in Atlantic City, the Wharton Esherick museum. We went on this one to voice our concern over the retirement of a certain color from the 64-pack of crayons.
The factory is much the same as it was on Mr.Rogers’ Neighborhood, except for they make markers now. And when I say “factory” I mean the actual production factory, not the pay-to-play amusement area they’ve built since they’ve closed the factory to outsiders like something out of a Roald Dahl novel.
We had a complete tour of the marker nib-making area and the place where they pour the wax for the crayons. We even got to product-test some of their (at the time) new washable markers, which are now de-facto for parents everywhere. And there was a pile of take-home art supplies for everyone. Of course, we had our say in front of the B&S executives about the loss of the Raw Umber color from the crayon pack, and they smiled and agreed that the loss was great, but the new colors were here to stay. Oh, well, so much for drawing trees.
Did you know that they are also responsible for making Silly Putty? That section of the plant was Top Secret and off-limits. Weird.
Anyway, I wanted to mention that Mr.Rogers may have been a nice guy on TV, but I know some people from Pittsburgh (his hometown) who were excited to have met him before he died, and they have all called him quite foul things after parting from the experience.
I get the same impression of Levar Burton, who was a host for Reading Rainbow back in the day. You know, Geordie from Star Trek.
Abby really likes Lazytown, and I must say that it’s not the worst show on TV. Our current favorite show is the Backyardigans. She can’t stop watching them - it’s almost a daily demand. Oh, and also Bear in the Big Blue House.
She keeps playing the DVD in her computer. I can’t tell if this is a display of independence because she can do it herself, or if she just really likes Bear. Still, it’s distracting when I’m trying to think at my desk across the room and Bear is singing the Bear Cha-Cha-Cha in the background.
“Cha-cha-cha… Ooh-la-la…”
