Can you tell me how to get..How to get to Sesame Street?


Apparently, it's easy--just follow the signs to your local PBS-Community Ideas station--in this case, WCVE Richmond.

Luckily, it's really close to where I live--so it was easy enough to find. The other day, with little else to do on a hot and steamy Richmond afternoon--we found it.

Don't tell anyone--but we kind of trespassed to get these pictures. And Ruth has been driving me batty for the past week singing, "Can you tell me how to get...how to get to Sesame Street? How to get to Sesame Street? How to get to Sesame Street!".

Unfortunately, she doesn't know any other lines to the song.

Just west of Petersburg, there is a little tiny town called Ettrick. I think most people know Ettrick as the home of Virginia State University, a historically black university.

The VSU mascot just happens to be a Trojan. However, not knowing that the school mascot was beforehand made these pictures funnier than they are now.



And every April, the Village of Ettrick hosts a Heritage Day festival. Since the Village is Ettrick is so small, and we had a general idea of where it was, none of us thought to google map our way there--since we expected the Heritage festival to encompasse the entire village--making it easy to find our way there.

Boy, were we wrong! After missing the village entirely, we finally stopped at a tiny little store that advertised "ice cream and computer repair" (sorry, didn't think to take a picture of it at the time), we finally got turned around in the right direction. As you can see, with all the advertisement they had up, it was nearly impossible for us to miss it.

Here I pose on top of the OTHER sign in the parking lot. Good thing there weren't any OTHER events going on at the same time, huh?


Rumor had it that the St. Andrews Pipe and Drum Corp would be performing. Even though we missed the performance, I did get one of the kilts to pose with me.

In celebration of the release of the long awaited Simpsons' movie this month, 7-11 has taken the opportunity to bring the Kwik-E-Mart to the masses by changing 12 of their stores into the veritable Springfield (state unknown) icon. One of these stores is located in Bladensburg, Maryland--and I went with camera in tow to show all of my readers what a real Kwik-E-Mart looks like.

The transformation begins on the outside, where the sign now trumpets KWIK-E-MART to the world at large.


The store has moved from their traditional red building to a bright yellow facade. As you may see, Marge is walking down the side, Comic book man is loitering to the other, and Milhouse and Bart have somehow made it onto the roof. Go figure. When I was a kid, I never hung out on the roof of the Kwik-E-Mart (er..7-11, I mean). Sure, NOW it seems like I get myself into some daring positions, perched precariously on top of numerous objects, but hey, I'm an adult and can get away with that kind of stuff.
Inside, the change to Kwik-E-Mart to 7-11 is more subtle--the main concession being the boxes and boxes of Krusty-O's and Buzz cola cluttering the aisles.
Here, Ruth and I pose with the veritable Apu. He seems like a jolly nice fellow to know, doesn't he?

Thomas thinks its amusing to give Homer bunny ears.

Somehow, Maggie got herself on top of the ice chest. That girl is ALWAYS scaling some insurmountable obstacle.
And look--the old geezer guy is stuck in the freezer again! And I thought that only happened in the opening credits!

Here, Ruth hams it up with Chief Wiggum--Ralphie was hanging out by the register.

If you get the urge for a Squishee, head on out to the Kwik-E-Mart, located at:

4199 Kenilworth Avenue
Bladensburg, MD 20710