Before my in person meet-up with
keychain collecting, email pen pal Heathersmoo in July of 2022, which I previously
wrote about on this blog, I’d only ever been to Sesame Place once in my life.
Though, no doubt like countless other children of my generation, I was
practically raised on PBS, Sesame
Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in
particular. I made my first ever visit to Sesame Place on a Girl Scout trip, and though
my memories of the excursion are pretty hazy, there’s one detail that still
stands out in my mind. I was standing on the edge of the ball pit, preparing to
jump in, when the employee in charge ordered me to take off my shoes first.
Being a sensitive child, I thought the employee was angry and was yelling at me,
and I got scared. Crying, I ran back to my dad, who was acting as my chaperone
on the trip. I didn’t tell him what was wrong however. I guess I was afraid
that he would be mad at me too, if I told him that the person in charge of the
ball pit was angry at me. I did refuse to go back to the ball pit though. Since
that’s my clearest memory from the trip, I’m guessing the rest of the day
wasn’t all that memorable in comparison.
I didn’t get any
keychains on that particular outing. I was still rather young at the time, and
I don’t think I was actively collecting yet.
You may therefore
be wondering how I ended up with several Sesame Place keychains in my collection,
especially since that time I went in my childhood was so traumatic for me. I
think I bought the first one in an attempt to let go of the memory and put the
experience behind me. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I’d gotten over
it. I bought the second keychain, I believe, because I’d forgotten that I’d already
picked up a Sesame Place
keychain for my collection.
As for the Sesame Place nail clippers
keychain, I bought that at a flea market because I was amused by what I saw
as an odd combination of elements. Sesame Place is a locale typically associated
with young children, while nail clippers are more commonly perceived as
something for adults. So to be honest, I’m not really sure why this keychain exists.
I don’t know what the attached little keys were originally for either. They
just came with the keychain.
Anyway, as far
as Sesame Place
goes, I guess this Story Post sort of serves to close a chapter for me. Given
the cost of park tickets, and the fact that there are far fewer attractions at Sesame Place that
can accommodate older guests (unlike at the Disney theme parks), I'm not planning on revisiting by myself anytime soon. Even though I love theme park gift shops
with exclusive, licensed merchandise more than I probably should.
Signed,
Treesa
