General

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12

25 Comments

This post started off as a trip down memory lane.
Then it became a question.
Then a bit of an obsession.
Now I’m just wondering what important information is lost in my brain to make room for ’70s TV memories.

I’m talking about that old Sesame Street cartoon where the lady has her kid go to the store, and the kid spends the whole time repeating “a loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter”. First off, it seems to me that there was either more to the list, or more to the kid’s rhyme. But those three have been validated through Google, so I’ll believe it. (I forgot that it was a “container” of milk, though thats understandable, since I don’t think I’ve referred to it as a “container” of milk ever. And I had thought there were eggs involved. Oh well.)

Here comes the first question. About half the websites (mostly blog entries) I found referred to it as a boy, the other half as a little girl. I distinctly remember it as being a boy. An inner city black (as African-Americans were called in the ’70s) kid dodging all kinds of distractions to get his bread, milk and butter. Maybe this would be better served as a poll question, but which was it? A boy or a girl?

Next question. Pete and I agreed to remember that one of the distractions on the street was a pimp. I’m sticking to that memory, but reading my research, I’m wondering if I might have my Sesame Street sketches confused. That and a little Simpsons thrown in. We ALL remember young Homer being chased through the streets of NYC by a pimp, and I know that it happened in Sesame Street, too, but one post I read (which I was either too dense or too ignorant to copy the link) flashed back to the boy’s dream where he gets lost and meets a man that morphs into all kinds of things to help him get back home. THAT, I believe, was a pimp. Now I’m even more lost.

So now I’m figuring out my next step. I really wish it was as easy as getting a movie clip of the “stick of butter” sketch, though that might not answer my pimp question, so I’d need the morphing sketch too. Ah, maybe I’ll just dig out that Simpsons episode and forget all about it.

It IS, after all, the weekend!

ADDED: I can’t believe I forgot this link! Seems this chick remembers the “stick of butter” sketch, which is cool. But she’s of the “it was a girl” memory. Not cool. Anyway, what got MY attention is the post about her “sex with David Spade” dreams. I think it was this line:

“I don’t like the annoying needy, nerdy, whiny qualities of his character on Just Shoot Me.”

…or those EXACT SAME qualities in EVERY OTHER character he’s ever done.

There. Now its the weekend.

25 thoughts on “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12”

  2. Maybe it was one of those non-gender specific type characters? I remember a short hair-do – one that could easily be interpreted male or female.

    Good question. So nice to help me procrastinate from preparing for finals. Glad I found you.

    ~allegro

  3. It was definitely a girl. In fact, I remember her name…it was Wilhelmina. I wish I could find a download of it! I’d love to see it again.

  4. Yes, I remember it as Wilhemenia – a black girl, too. And I remember as she was walking, she got herself all confused, and was saying “a stick a bread, a loaf a milk a container a butta” or something like that… Seems to me there were a few Wilhemina skits, because I remember “W-wh-wh-whilemenia” (unless that was part of this one, too?)

  5. SOMEONE PLEASE help me find this. I am sitting at work talking to a co-worker about this skit. We thought it was a PSA and we both agree it was a little black boy. Can you contact Sesame Street and pay for the clip. I’d love to have it for my kids to grow up with.

    KP

  6. Pingback: A Stick of Bread, a Loaf of Milk, and … at Musings of a Chicagoan

  7. There WAS more to the list

    it goes…ahem…”a loaf of bread, a carton of eggs, a container of milk, and a stick o’ butta'”

  8. it was “a loaf a bread, a containa a milk and a stick a butter” – it was a girl too. remember how she pictures her mother in her mind saying it and when she gets home, she’s all excited “I REMEMBERED MOMMY, I REMEMBERED!”

    p.s. i was looking for the “w … for WILHELMENIA” skit on google and found this site

    go to youtube.com and there is a TON of old skool sesame street avail for your viewing pleasure (but not this one or the w one, dammit)

  10. No, it was DEFINITELY a little boy………have been searching for the clip , and google brought me here. His mother sends him to the store , and he is just trying to remember what for. Wilhemenia was from a different skit………..

  11. Glad to find this blog as I was dangerously close to madness. This repetitious phrase has been bugging me for years. I distinctly remember a little African-American BOY being sent to the store by his Mom. Think about it, in those days would a little girl be given such a task? Doubtful. Anyway,one can even get a T-Shirt
    from zazzle.com (I have no stake in this site, just FYI).

  12. I have found it, and it’s on the “BEST OF ELECTRIC COMPANY” dvd, i believe..

    it’s a girl named Wilamena.. and it’s definitely THREE ITEMS..

    the person who uploaded the clip got their account suspended, but on my playlist:

    http://youtube.com/my_playlists?p=87A8828BA0AA0592

    ..you can see the description.. I also found two other shorts by the same animator, Jim Simon.

    He did a show from the seventies called “Vegetable Soup”, and I guess, his studio Wantu Studios did the beginning of Soul Train back then..

    Pretty cool, huh?

    I also remember a short by him where a football player was saying “throw it to me”, and a giant “IT” fell from the sky and he said “I got IT”..

    anyone else?

  13. I found it!!!!
    Ihave wanted to see this for years and I found it!
    I dont know why I liked it so much…. And by the way its a girl!!!!

  15. I loved that sketch! It was definitely a girl, not many boys wear dresses and bows in their hair! No one ever says her name though.

  16. You know, I was just looking this up, and I definitely remembered a boy, but then I was directed to a Youtube clip of a little girl, so there were two versions.

  17. Maybe there were 2 versions, but the one I remember was Definitely a little african american boy with an afro. I’m 95% sure that a “carton of eggs” was included in the list. None of those youtube clips work anymore, so sadly I cant see this version with a little girl… I NEED this clip! haha. I gotta see it again. I gotta! I shall search more, and If I find the little boy version, I’ll post it *crosses fingers*

  19. There was another one like this with a little boy going to the store, he walks past a pimp and a whole bunch of other weird things. In that sketch, he has to remember all of things he passed to remember how to get back home. The animation was similar to “loaf of bread…”

  20. This phrase has been stuck in my head for years! I brought it up today with someone about my age and he looked at me like I was nuts. With the help of your blog and searching on youtube, I see now that no less than three sketches morphed together in my memory. The first was the container of milk one. The second was the boy with the bicycle and the third was the pinball one. Now I even know the Pointer Sisters played a role in the last one.
    Thanks!

  25. There was most likely two versions of this skit.
    I definately remember a BOY and he said “QUART of milk” with a little pimp walk of sorts. I remember trying to walk like him when I used to go to the grocery store with my mom and I just kept repeating “a loaf a bread, a QUART a milk, and a stick a buttah! I do remember there were some distractions on the way to the grocery. I’ve seen the version of the little girl and that is NOT same skit.

Comments are closed.