sponsored by
11/15/2009
enlarge
Staff photo by David Leamingfrom the Kennebec Journal
FAIRPOINT PLAN TARGETS DEBT
Wind project off Mass. meets strong resistance
Three bills seek tougher rules for petitioners
New rules for special education debated
Happy apples
AUGUSTA: Cuts to French curriculum run into opposition
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL: Hall-Dale drops MVC title game to Mountain Valley
HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Different stakes in Gardiner-Winslow rivalry
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
'At the time ... he was psychotic'
Man answers door, is attacked with Mace and then robbed
FairPoint reorganization plan aims to slash company's debt
Concerns over special-education changes aired
FAIRFIELD: Clinton man, 21, arrested on rape, assault charges
Stun gun, arrest of suspect end high-speed, 2-town chase
HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Gardiner, Winslow take to ice again
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Skowhegan wins KVAC A title game
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Just ask all the kids who live there.
And as children and their parents all around the world mark the 40th anniversary this week of the TV show "Sesame Street" on PBS, the Morning Sentinel went looking for those storied addresses.
Where was the road named for an 8-foot, 2-inch yellow-feathered friend who likes birdseed milkshakes and roller skating? Where was this neighborhood of sunny days where everything's A-OK?
During a random stop for directions Thursday morning on McClellan Street, in Skowhegan, a woman was asked how to get to Sesame Street.
"Right there," Deanna Gilblair said, pointing to houses down the street. "My son named those streets -- he was 7 years old."
Deanna Gilblair and her husband Donald built the trailer park off Bloomfield and McClellan streets in 1975. The Skowhegan Planning Board approved the subdivision in March of that year, according to town records.
The television show premiered in November 1969.
The couple's son, Edward Gilblair, was the lucky little boy who got to name the streets. He named them after his favorite television show.
"He watched 'Sesame Street' all the time, so we decided to name it that when we built that trailer park," Deanna Gilblair said. "Grover, Big Bird and Sesame Street. I thought it was great."
The Gilblairs, who sold the park a few years later, still live on the corner of Sesame Street and McClellan Street. Liberty Management held the property for a time; then they sold it to Dan Peters of Winslow.
Peters said the street signs have been stolen over the years, and more than once.
"The kids love the names, so they keep getting stolen," Peters said. "I've replaced them a couple times. What I'm contemplating is having a granite plate made or something that they can't steal very easily."
Donald Gilblair said there are 43 house lots in the park, which is two long rows of homes -- Sesame Street and Big Bird Street -- connected at the top by Grover Street, named for the excitable, but caring, blue monster of TV fame.
Gilblair, who had a construction business at the time, said the names got a lot of attention after the land was cleared and the street names were approved.
"The school even brought kids down from the grade school to walk up Sesame Street and Big Bird Street; it was quite a positive thing," he said. "We just tried to come up with street names and (Edward) mentioned that and that's the way it went. It had to go through the Planning Board, of course, and they accepted it."
The streets are private, not owned by the town and are maintained by Peters.
School buses drop the kids off at the end of the streets and they either walk home or are picked up by family members, said Brenda Folsom, a grandmother who lives on Big Bird Street.
"It's really great around here because there's plenty of places for the kids to play," Folsom said waiting for the school bus Thursday afternoon. "The names definitely fit the area. There's a lot of kids around here. The kids are able to ride their bikes; they've got plenty of room and Dan takes very good care of the place."
Elementary school student Hannah Rundlett, who lives on Big Bird Street, said she likes being able to ride her bike on a quiet street and thinks the street name is pretty cool, too.
"I feel like I'm living on the show with Big Bird, Elmo and Grover," she said. "It feels good because I've never been in a TV show before."
Hannah's neighbor Christian Mathieu, 10, was slightly more animated in saying why he liked living on Big Bird Street.
"Well, it's pretty insanely fun," the boy said. "You have old friends, new friends, some friends that move out that you get in contact with. I'd get pretty bored in a new place."
As for the adults who live on Sesame Street and Big Bird Street, the address comes with somewhat of a stigma, with a hint of comic relief.
"It creates hassles," said Denman Bigelow of Big Bird Street. "When you go to order something over the phone and they ask for your address and you go 'Big Bird Street,' they laughingly say 'And I suppose you're right beside Sesame Street' and my comment is 'Oh, you've been in Skowhegan before.'"
So after 40 years of "Sesame Street" on TV and 34 years of Sesame Street, Big Bird Street and Grover Street in Skowhegan, what's next for the trailer park that carries such a friendly name?
A new road, Brenda Folsom said, and maybe a playground for all the kids.
"We have a new one, now," she said, pointing to a trail leading to woods where storage units are planned. "This is Cookie Lane."
Doug Harlow -- 474-9534 ext. 342
dharlow@centralmaine.com
Reader comments
Click here to view or add reader comments