Sesame Place Souvenir Keychains (A Story Post)

 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