Tuesday, September 18th:
<img border=”0″ src=”pictures/dressup.jpg” align=”left”> Ernie Coombs came to Canada in 1963 to work with his friend Fred Rogers at CBC. When Mr. Rogers moved back to the United States, CBC had a children’s slot that needed filling. On the advice of Mr. Rogers, Ernie Coombs took over the slot and Mr. Dressup was born in 1967. With his constant companions Casey and Finnegan, Mr. Dressup brought smiles and laughter to children for almost 30 years, until his retirement in 1996. When Judith Lawrence, Casey and Finnegan’s puppeteer, retired in 1989, the puppets retired with her but Mr. Dressup carried on with his new friends, who I never got to know. His last show taped on Valentines Day, 1996, with little fanfare. Reruns continue today, as children still watch, as they did 30 years ago, to the man with the tickle trunk and the owl on the wall.

When Casey and Finnegan retired, I was saddened by the departure of 2 puppets I had grown up with and grown to love.

Today I cry as I say goodbye to Mr. Dressup, who passed away this morning, after a lifetime of making children like me smile.

Thank you for everything, Mr. Dressup, and I miss you.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2001 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.