It’s sad to see another little piece of childhood pass away but I’m over 50 now so it’s all inevitable. What I am glad about is how long Bob lived along with the decades of joy he gave millions of children around the world!
Quick aside. In my family, Bob was already famous long before he joined Sesame Street. If you read his obituary, he was born in Ottawa, IL; my father’s hometown and where my maternal grandmother taught high school until her retirement. Allegedly, my Uncle Skip went to high school or something with him; they weren’t tight, probably knew about the upper classman who went on to be a member of The Mitch Miller Show. If you’ve seen the Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do!, the cheesey, song being sung by a chorus of men is a tribute to the type of show Mitch was. I think it was created in the late Fifties/early Sixties to entertain the “Greatest” Generation because you’d see Bob amongst the other male singers covering standards. I saw it once or twice in syndication. It was way, way less schmaltz and felt more sincere than Lawrence Welk.
Now to how much Bob meant in the last act of his career via Sesame Street, a PBS and “Big Gubmint” success St. Reagan couldn’t and his stormtroopers can’t refute. Being in Generation X, he was a huge fixture, amongst the diverse cast, in my upbringing since we were the inaugural audience learning the show’s socialist values. You know, not being a dick to other people, cooperating/compromising in addition to counting and reading. His singing and constant smiling were a delight, while telling us all about the people in our neighborhood. My grandparents even had one of his solo albums.
Of course, I graduated to The Electric Company, Zoom, 3-2-1 Contact and less PBS programming so Sesame Street became a show for babies. I am glad Bob continued to be a fixture for the remainder of Gen X, the Mills, Get Z and the nicknames they have for the ongoing two living today. It’s nice we all have something in common beyond Muppets voraciously eating cookies.
While I was in the my thirties, I recall reading an interview with him and a funny anecdote about his fame came up. The details were hazy but it entailed him being in a store and a little girl snuck up on him, tugged on his sleeve. He politely asked her, “Do you know who I am?” She nodded in a awe. Given who he was, I’m confident he was smiling and laughing a little. I bet he never grew tired of it. Bob got to be a beloved figure, especially amongst American children on par with Santa Claus.
Bob, thank you ever so much for everything you did! I’m choking back the tears writing my personal farewell to you. Sesame Street wouldn’t have been the same without you plus it’s awesome that Ottawa, IL; got another famous resident beyond Lew Wallace; he wrote the novel Ben Hur. May you live forever in syndication through PBS and streaming.