Sesame Street - I Am A Letter (1970)

Remember letters, kids? I used to spend my summers writing to faraway pen-pals. Still friends with some of them all these years later. From 1970, a sweet and quirky ode to the post office, "I Am A Letter", which tells the tale of the journey of a letter through the US Postal Service. And a very detailed journey it is! Some of the lines and the ways they're forced to rhyme just kill me. But, hey, "This is information that's important to know"! Lots of thanks to our own First Class Male, @Sesame Maniac, for helping me finally knock this request off my To-Do List. Classic earworm.
TECH NOTES: Not perfect, the video's a tad choppy, for lack of a better term. Difficult to convert the episode when it comes from certain streaming networks (don't want to tick them off by naming them), so we'll just have to cross our fingers when it comes to any future clips from these eps.
PLAYLIST: bit.ly/Sesame_S...
Shameless Amazon Plugs!
Pets Forever Postage Stamps (Book of 20) amzn.to/2CIdkGr
Dragons Forever Postage Stamps (Sheet of 16) amzn.to/2BDSjMA
Sesame Street Forever Postage Stamps (Sheet of 16) amzn.to/2NtOtIn
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muppet.fandom.... (First)
LYRICS
Who do you think I am? The answer's not hard
I'm a letter in an envelope, a package or card
How do I come to you and how do I go?
Come on and follow along, let's see if you know
We're waiting in the mailbox, night and day
We're waiting for the mail truck to take us away
(Humming and scatting as the mailman empties the mailbox)
Now we're in the mail truck and we're on our way
To the post office, all night and all day
The post office, the post office, the post office!
Out of the mailbag, we're ready to ride
Onto a moving belt, we slip and we slide
And then they seperate us, the big from the small
Along the moving belt we go, and down we fall
Who do you think I am? The answer's not hard
I'm a letter in an envelope, a package or card
The post office, the post office, the post office!
Riding up the belt then we're on the move
Up and over and down we go, oh into the groove
And now we get to postmark, one at a time
Which tells the place we started from and at what time
The post office, the post office, the post office!
And, what do ya think happens when we get our mark?
Yeah, they line us up together and then they start
To read our addresses, the places we will go
This is information that's important to know
The post office, the post office, the post office!
They put us into piles, up above and below
With letters that have to go ... the same place we go
They put us into mailbags, full and strong
Now, we're ready to take a trip, short or long
Day and night, the mail rides on jet-powered planes
All across America, through wind, snow, or rain
(Do-do-dee-do ...)
We go to any post offices across the land
Where the mailman takes us and sorts us by hand
They pack us into leather bags, just so
The mailman delivers us, let's see where we go
The mailman, the mailman, the mailman!
We come to your house, the answer's not hard
I'm a letter in an envelope, a package or card
The mailman, the mailman, the mailman!
Now you know just who I am, now you know me better
You've seen where I go, now say my name
I'm a letter!
Twitter: / tinydancer500
Instagram: / tinyd500
Web: bit.ly/Sesame_...
KZbin: / tinydancer500
Facebook: / thesesamestreetlyricsa...

[@jessyleppert2]

I play this all the time except Sundays and holidays

[@citycrusher9308]

As a 70s child I can't help but love 70s sesame street best

[@Naminski1a]

Like all five Sesame Street: Beginning/End stop-motion segments.

[@citycrusher9308]

@@Naminski1a Exactly

[@robertwarznak5461]

Several segments were filmed in my hometown in New Jersey. The mailman that they sing about *was* my mailman.

[@MIKECNW]

Nice. However looks like there was more than 1 MM in the film.

[@robertwarznak5461]

@@MIKECNW That's true. But at 3:10, they started singing "the mailman, the mailman ...". At that point, they featured my mailman.

[@jessyleppert2]

Where in NJ?

[@orphanedpennies7715]

Been looking for this for YEARS (at least 51 years)! Thank you for posting this!

[@timobrien8809]

Allot has changed in 50 years. They should do an updated version of this. It's always nice to get a post card or personal letter in the mail.

[@MIKECNW]

Why should they update it.

[@TinyDancer500]

@@MIKECNW Maybe not the music, which is catchy, but the mechanics of moving the mail itself has changed drastically over the years, I'm sure. But, other than the front counters, I wouldn't know what the inside of a post office looked like these days. Hence the need for an update :-)

[@mrfloxin]

Rhonda: Thank you for posting the video on KZbin. The video is old as me like in fifty years old for the both of us. You made my day!

[@TinyDancer500]

You are so welcome, David! 1970 was a pretty cool year. Well, so I've heard, I was only 6 myself :-)

[@mrfloxin]

@@TinyDancer500 Thank you Rhonda for replying to me. You have a nice day!

[@gsnfan]

Sort of a Simon and Garfunkle song.

[@jessyleppert2]

Or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

[@gsnfan]

@@jessyleppert2 I prefer this version than the later edited version with the dooby doo song. Too butchered up.

[@CowSaysMooMoo]

Thank you for posting this.....I haven't seen it in 45+ years but still knew some lyrics......really nice to see it again...

[@MIKECNW]

This film was later edited with different singing and music and shorted a bit.

[@TinyDancer500]

That might explain why I didn't recognize it at all! The music alone surely would have stuck with me.

[@audreyleonard8756]

Thank you tiny dancer!😊

[@DaveFisher-cq2dr]

1:50 a stamp of president Dwight D. Eisenhower, you don't see many of those anymore, and to think this was 30 years before Amazon packages and Ebay packages became part of everyday mail

[@davidratte1959]

I love this song.

[@misterhot9163]

Omg that was fun

[@vestonbruno2795]

Sending letters is far from becoming obsolete.

[@DakariKingMykan]

Reason being: Emails can be hacked/Failed to be received. Mail... not so easily

[@TinyDancer500]

I agree, Veston. They just don't seem as ubiquitous these days. But, they'll never disappear, for reasons such as DakariKingMykan mentions, which is comforting to me.

[@jessyleppert2]

This sounds like both Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash

[@chrismulwee4911]

Yes it does, but it's probably somebody we don't know. It sounds like the same people who did The Fireman Song, which came out about the same as this.

[@MomLAU]

Well, maybe. Except for the parts with the little high-pitched voices. :)

[@chrismulwee4911]

@@MomLAU I wonder if those high voices are children, or maybe the singers' own voices sped up.

[@MomLAU]

​@@chrismulwee4911 They're letters. They told us so. 😅

[@MVR326]

Wow.. I remember this song for 50 ye@rs. Thk you so much ! This used to intrigue me when I ws 2 kid... F@vorite prt for me ws the jetliner ;)

[@ryanferguson1358]

@Tiny Dancer Looks Like The Mail Carrier is going to Deliver A Letter at the Post Office

[@davidmoore4019]

What about the guy in the applachian mountains??

[@TinyDancer500]

Indeed! The official site has it online and I can't do any better right now: bit.ly/2YykEgc

[@EddieKyteABCDEFG12345678910]

@@TinyDancer500 Since you like Sesame Street so much, I made a document of a closing scene from my own episode of Sesame Street. docs.google.com/document/d/1yNsJCWy4CR_yy4tMysCL_FPnlpti1rBawbJNtA9TvII/edit

[@EddieKyteABCDEFG12345678910]

Tiny Dancer, I have a problem. I tried to tell Rohail Hashmi that I made an Old School outline, but he didn't believe me. Can you talk to him, please?

[@TinyDancer500]

@@EddieKyteABCDEFG12345678910 We only know each other online, but Rohail is his own man. I'm sure he sees any comments directed at him on here (KZbin, I mean, not this specific video) just like I do. What he chooses to do with those comments is entirely up to him.

[@EddieKyteABCDEFG12345678910]

@@TinyDancer500 Please, it's an emergency.

[@DdR1250]

It sounds like the singers that did "Fireman."

[@kerronmcsween6095]

I never seen this one before🤔, I was nowhere near that time😌

[@bassicallyraul5256]

My dad borned a year later lol

[@inlovewithmatthew4485]

A lot of people used to think of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as a suitable "partner" to Sesame Street, like the apple pie to the cheese. But these days, THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE!........Slay me, slay me

[@MIKECNW]

I don't know what you even mean by that and neither show has anything in common when each other than they're aimed at the same age group.

[@jkaravis]

The Post Office The Post Office The Post Office

[@rohailhashmi8050]

Nice video song I hope to see 1. Ernies flying fingers 2. Grover and Kermit up and down staircase 3. Don music old Macdonald 4. Roosevelt Franklin raining 5. People in your neighborhood fisherman farmer 6. People in your neighborhood crossing guard waiter 7. People in your neighborhood florist electrician 8. People in Your neighborhood tv repairman clockmaker 9. The count goes to the bank 10. Brush your teeth

[@rohailhashmi8050]

I’ll be patience

[@Naminski1a]

@@rohailhashmi8050 Don’t forget all five Sesame Street: Beginning/End stop-motion segments.

[@Paulywint]

I don't even remember this clip

[@d72jjpilc]

Looking at Muppet Wiki, I see that the music for this film was re-edited in later episodes (even starting in the early 1970's, perhaps). Like others have mentioned, it was shortened and given a different musical score. The one I'm thinking of contained the lyrics '...to the post office where it will stay, for just one day...' Tiny Dancer - IIRC, you have (or once had) a Sesame Street lyrics Web page, and the lyrics I mentioned above are mentioned somewhere on it. Am I right or mistaken? Also, would you happen to have that clip as well, or just this one? Just wondering, and thanks.

[@MIKECNW]

It was not just the music. Even the film itself. I seem to remember the later version didn't have the boy mailing the letter at the post office and the girl mailing the letter at the mail box was also cut out. Same with the airplane.

[@d72jjpilc]

@@MIKECNW OK, thanks for responding. But does the line I mentioned above - '...to the post office where it will stay, for just one day...' - sound familiar as well, from the 'updated' version? Just wondering.

[@MIKECNW]

@@d72jjpilc Yes.

[@ryanferguson1633]

@Tiny Dancer More Uploads Please

[@Naminski1a]

Like all five Sesame Street: Beginning/End stop-motion segments.

[@ryanferguson7084]

Is This The Office Building Most of them work on weekdays not over the weekend

[@ryanferguson1358]

@Tiny Dancer Can you Upload Sesame Street Episode 1781 It Got Removed from the Rohail Hashmi Channel As Long as you do better Tiny Dancer Make Sure you Process them Sponsors Are L R 3

[@TinyDancer500]

On my list, Ryan, no worries. Not as clean as I'd like, but still in good shape.

[@Naminski1a]

@@TinyDancer500 Don’t forget Sesame Street Episodes 387 and 441.

[@ryanferguson1633]

@Tiny Dancer Can you Upload Sesame Street Episode 2609

[@TinyDancer500]

Not in my current pile.