The Letter People

I was typing a letter at work the other day and I began to struggle with the common "ie" spelling. "I" before "E", except after "C". Even though it doesn't always look right to me, it's a good rule. Except, in my head, I saw Ms. I and Ms. E standing next to each other. Work was off for those next few minutes. I began thinking of how my mind is wired. I began to think of how a simple educational tool from kindergarten still affected my thought processes. I still (occassionally) envision letters in my head as they are Letter People.

The Letter People was a children's educational show and literacy program from the 1970's. By the 1980's, the show was constantly airing on PBS and there were books and records with songs for each of the Letter People. We were introduced to each Letter Person every week. We would close our eyes and our teacher would turn the song on. We would open our eyes and before us would be a 30 inch blow-up doll of that particular character. It was very exciting. Some of the characters would have trouble keeping inflated. Mr. M and Ms. E to mention a couple. Others would stay well inflated throughout the year such as Mr. T (that was cool in the 80's anyway) and Ms. O. In my time, the consonants were men and vowels were women. That still sticks with me today. I still think of vowels as females. So strange.

In 1990, as I read on Wikipedia, there was a revival of the letter people but with politically correct changes. The males and females were more balenced and they could no longer use junk food to associate with letters. For example, Mr. D was Delicious Doughnuts. He had doughnuts all over him. That changed. Now, I love doughnuts but I don't think it had anything to do with Mr. D. I don't like lollipops but that's what Mr. L was all about. Cotton Candy C didn't do anything to me. So anyway, I think they went a bit too far with some of the "pc" stuff. Others from my generation seem to agree.

John and I spoke about The Letter People a while back. He had them too. I have a feeling John's wires aren't as mixed up as mine. Even though my mind still has the after-effects, I can look back with great appreciation of that program. I learned quickly with those tools. Seeing Cotton Candy "C" and Horrible Hair "H" standing next too each other as they teach me phonics is just an amusing side effect. It will probably never leave me. It hasn't in 25 years.