Happy 7th Birthday Big Pile of Stuff!

Today, July 30th, is the 7th birthday of this, the Big Pile of Stuff blog. For the first few years, I made all kinds of fun graphics for the special occasion, but then the last few years, I have actually forgotten about the day completely. Today, I wanted to to acknowledge 7 years, but I was kinda lazy, so I have just recycled one of my favorite graphics from a previous birthday. I love this one because it looks so much like something you would see on Sesame Street, with the large foam letters on sticks parading around their apartment.
As a special thank you to those of you who actually read this, I will be having a cool giveaway in a few days, so keep your eyes peeled for my next post.

Little Golden Book Monday #127

Today's Little Golden Book is Bert's Hall of Great Inventions featuring Bert and Ernie and other Jim Henson Muppets including Franklin and Prairie Dawn. The book is originally from 1972 (this is an eleventh printing edition from 1981). I certainly remember this book from you childhood. I was always a big fan of Sesame Street and the Muppets, so I am sure I owned my own copy of this one at some point. I have scanned two of the pages from the book that I particularly like. The first is a great drawing of Bert and Ernie hanging out in the dark with their firefly friends. The second is a silly drawing of Bert whacking Ernie on the head with a fly swatter. I like that the fly is saying "Ha ha."

Little Golden Book Monday #116

Today's Little Golden Book is Another Monster at the End of This Book from 1996. I didn't actually clue into this until I was writing this, but this is actually the sequel to the original Monster at the End of This Book from 1971 which I remember reading when I was younger. You can actually read the entire original book online here.
The really cool thing about my copy of Another Monster at the End of This Book is that is seems to have been owned by one of Grover and Elmo's Sesame Street pals Zoe.

Little Golden Book Monday #93

Today's Little Golden Book is Big Bird's Red Book featuring Jim Henson's Muppets. This educational book was created in cooperation with the Children's Television Workshop, producers of Sesame Street. Children do no have to watch the television show to benefit from this book. Workshop revenues from this product will be used to help support CTV educational projects. This is the forth printing from 1978. The artwork in this book reminds me of a Richard Scary book with Big Bird walking though all the scenes.

Little Golden Book Monday #43

Today's Little Golden Book is Oscar's Book by Jeffrey Moss with pictures by Michael Gross. Great name for an artist of an Oscar the Grouch book, don't you think! And I love the artwork in this book. Oscar is so rough looking and grouchy, that he looks like some sort of a monster out of a Godzilla movie.
I saw something recently in a magazine (don't remember which one), but they had a small photo of Big Bird on the cover and inside there was a couple of paragraphs talking about the recent DVD release of Sesame Street: Old School. They went on to warn parents that the DVD might not be suitable for children as in the early episodes of Sesame Street, which this DVD focuses on, the Muppets were pretty rough around the edges, and not as cutsie as they are today. That really made me chuckle! Today's youngsters are certainly missing out on the good stuff.

Little Golden Book Monday #31

Tonight's Little Golden Book is the Sesame Street, The Together Book from 1971. When I saw this one at the junk store, I immediately loved the cover. I have always loved Sesame Street and the Muppets, and this cover has a certain charm about it. It's so simple and yet so familiar.
Upon opening the front cover we see that this book features Jim Henson's Muppets. There is a large text box with the following words; "The Sesame Street Together Book was created to entertain your child as he (1) tests his logical thinking by choosing the object that will prove useful in each set of circumstances, and (2) discovers that things go more smoothly when we cooperate with each other.
This educational product was designed in cooperation with the Children's Television Workshop, creators of Sesame Street. it has independent educational value, and children do not have to watch the television show to benefit from it.
Workshop revenues from this product will be used to help support CTW educational projects."
So what did we learn from that... (1) that only boys are ready this book, (2) that we were being tricked into learning while enjoying Sesame Street as kids, and (3) that luckily for those unfortunately few souls without televising sets in the 70's, they could read this book and enjoy it, even without watching the Sesame Street TV program.
I'm not sure, but I bet I owned this book as a child.

Little Golden Book Monday #19

Today's Little Golden Book is "From Trash to Treasure" which seems very appropriate for me right now, as I have been on a real Thrift store kick recently. There is a certain thrill in finding some treasure amongst a pile of junk at the local thrift shop, and recently I have been venturing into a lot of said thrift shops!
So, in honor of my recent trash to treasure finds, I bring you the 1993 CTW Sesame Street "From Trash To Treasure" in which Ernie and Bert, along with the rest of the Sesame Street gang learn about recycling, in which "new things can be made from trash."
So I guess what this book teaches me, is that I am actually helping the environment by buying all this stuff and keeping it out of the land fill! Makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over just thinking about my planned visit to some new thrift shops tomorrow afternoon.