My Favorite TV Character, Captain Kangaroo

Wednesday...I hear that it's "Favorite TV Character Day".  Who could be  better to represent TV and character than Captain Kangaroo?

 

When I was little, this was the tv program I watched every weekday morning.  This was before childcare, pre-k, kindergarten, preschool.  This was the time when Grandma would come and sit with you when Mom had to go shopping or to the doctor. 

 

Captain Kangaroo was the way I started the day, with toast, cereal maybe, strawberry Quik.  Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan),  Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum), and Mr. Moose, Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock,  Dancing Bear, and Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, I remember them all.  I remember Phoebe the sheepdog, and the pingpong balls, the magic drawing board.

 

I remember the commercials...appropriate ones for kids my age, for Schwinn bicycles, Playdoh, and Crayola Crayons.

 

And he read to me.  Curious George, Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, the books I hold in my hands today that make me remember Captain Kangaroo. 

 

There's no doubt in my mind that the Captain helped develop my love of books, pingpong balls, nice bikes and fuzzy animals.  I can't imagine what kind of person I would have been  without him.