Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

I was 7 years old when those funny-looking characters appeared on our black-and-white TV set. We lived in what the Tupelo city folk considered the country. If there was such a thing as cable, we surely didn’t know anything about it. The only static-free channel on our dial was the NBC affiliate, and that’s because the station on Beech Springs Road was barely a mile from our house. Suddenly, there was this new station – PBS.

Those funny-looking characters were from this new show called “Sesame Street,” and they had me hooked from the first day. Of course, I was happy to have an

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