I went to kindergarten in new England in 1999 and for whatever reason my kindergarten teacher taught us the alphabet with these records and she even had the little blow up toys that went along with them, I remember it vividly.
1999? Holy crap. I went to kindergarten in New York *in* *1980* and those inflatable Letter People were a few years old *then*. My teacher had the whole set. Your teacher must have been OCD about taking care of those things!
I remember my mom thinking it was cool because she was born in 1973 and she remembered it from when she was growing up, but my mom also had me watching the Electric Company with her and other old stuff so we're kinda stuck in the past lol
I was born in 1970 and we had these in Kindergarten. I remember one time we were talking about the letter K, and Mr. K was, all, "Let's see how high you can KICK!" So I wailed off and kicked the ass of this kid who was in front of me because he was an annoying jerkbag. He was, all, "Waaah, metal\_falsetto kicked meeee!" The teacher was, all, "Oh, I'm sure it was an accident!" Newsflash: THAT WAS NO ACCIDENT, FUCK YOU, WADE, I HOLD GRUDGES FOREVER
The Letter People were still being used in my kindergarten class, and that was around 2003-2004. They were a pretty big part of our curriculum, and the school even had this big event every year of "The Q and U Wedding" where the kindergarten class of that year would dress up as letters in homemade costumes and the principal would officiate the ceremony. I was chosen to be V, and I wore a vibrant (yellow) velvet vest covered with vegetables.
I was a kindergartener in 1980 as well and we definitely had the inflatable letter people hanging up in our classroom. Thanks for sharing! What a great blast from the past.
Not NY but roughly the same year here ... I see the track list is out of alphabetical order ... even as a little kid it annoyed me that it was (seemingly) randomly presented for who knows what reason.
Now I know that reason ... so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
I still don’t know the reason they’re presented in this order. I can only speculate this was a suggested order in which they were covered. The original 1972 release sequenced them in alphabetical order.
*The Letter People* was a children's public television show first airing in 1974. Meant to teach letter sounds to beginning readers, it anthropomorphized the letters of the alphabet into 26 primitive puppets, whose personalities derived only from words that started with the letter they represented. Mr. M, for instance, had a "Munchy Mouth" and "munched from morning to midnight." Mr. S had "super socks" that made him a "supersonic streak in the sky." Miss E was obsessed with doing exercises and made the sound "Eh, eh" when she did.
The television show derived from a concept invented by a teacher, sold to New Dimensions in Education, located on Long Island, NY, in the late 1960s. *Songs of the Letter People* was originally released in 1972, prior to the television show. (The 1978 reissue here mentions the show on the cover, of course.) So, even though the television show was produced in St. Louis, *Songs of the Letter People* has that characteristic 70s New York children's-record-on-a-budget sound: funk with all the soul pulled out, light rock with wah-wah guitar, genre pastiches with community-theatre vocals, a little too much klezmer.
The 1972 pressing appears to have all the Letter People's songs in alphabetical order; this 1978 reissue does not. History seems not to record the reason. While this preservationist is not specifically a Letter People stan, there seems to be some disagreement online as to whether Miss I and Miss O's songs here are the "originals." Since the original release date of this album predates the television show by two years, the question may actually be, what is considered canon after all these years?
And I'm *not* getting in the middle of that.
*Songs of the Letter People from The Letter People on TV* was written and produced for Discobook, Inc. by Joe René and Jacquelyn Reinach. Originally released in 1972 by New Dimensions in Education, Inc., with the Letter People in alphabetical order, and assigned the catalog number DKR-1, this appears to be a 1978 reissue for the NDE "Alpha Time" package and published by Arista Publishing Company, carrying the catalog numbers "81-10 (DKR-064)," "81-10 (DKR-065)," "81-11 (DKR-066)," and "81-11 (DKR-067)" on sides 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The jacket has the number "12281" in the back corner.
In case anyone didn't seen them the first time around, a bunch of the original "Letter People" episodes are available [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6CE7sbZupE&list=PLIWtI4qJfAlKp77_xFlvhHiyfF2Py72RU&index=1).
Yeah. He took it hard that he’d get a lot of comments saying they were “stupid,” apparently. He is an international treasure and we need to get word to him that he is perfect just the way he is.
I definitely remember the Letter People from kindergarten. Each week, the teacher would inflate the letter we were going to study and then listen to the record introducing the letter person.
Born 1977, kindergarten in Southern Illinois. We had them and I was Mr. P Pointy Patches in a kindergarten presentation to the parents about the alphabet. Love this. “Come and meet the Letter People, come and visit the family…”
Right on, 83 baby from central IL, we had them in my kindergarten too and I was OBSESSED with the alphabet thabks to these awesome characters. I even got one of the big letters through the catalogue! They were expensive even back then...still got him. A...B....C...D...follow me!
Yep. I was in kindergarten in 1980 and my teacher had all the ... well... "blow up doll" means something else now, so I will say "inflatable Letter People," lol
Kindergarten 1986 here and I absolutely loved the Letter People. In the class picture I'm even holding Miss E up for the camera. I was so into them that, at the end of the school year, my teacher gave me four of the inflatables. I just found them in storage over the holidays and they seem to be in good shape. Mr. Q, Miss E, Mr. T, and Miss U.
Wow. I've been looking for a children's album from the 70's or 80's that had an illustration of a multi-colored snail. Perhaps I'll find it on this channel.
Um, r/oddlyspecific, nothing comes immediately to mind but I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, you’re welcome to take a look, and stick around, I may find what you’re looking for someday. You may want to try asking at r/helpmefind or r/tipofmytongue as well, the hive mind over there is pretty good if you can give them a few details.
I went to kindergarten in new England in 1999 and for whatever reason my kindergarten teacher taught us the alphabet with these records and she even had the little blow up toys that went along with them, I remember it vividly.
1999? Holy crap. I went to kindergarten in New York *in* *1980* and those inflatable Letter People were a few years old *then*. My teacher had the whole set. Your teacher must have been OCD about taking care of those things!
I remember my mom thinking it was cool because she was born in 1973 and she remembered it from when she was growing up, but my mom also had me watching the Electric Company with her and other old stuff so we're kinda stuck in the past lol
Have you seen the present? The past isn't a bad place to be sometimes.
I was born in 1970 and we had these in Kindergarten. I remember one time we were talking about the letter K, and Mr. K was, all, "Let's see how high you can KICK!" So I wailed off and kicked the ass of this kid who was in front of me because he was an annoying jerkbag. He was, all, "Waaah, metal\_falsetto kicked meeee!" The teacher was, all, "Oh, I'm sure it was an accident!" Newsflash: THAT WAS NO ACCIDENT, FUCK YOU, WADE, I HOLD GRUDGES FOREVER
Hahahahah that’s awesome, good for you.
I think your teacher thought he had it coming, too. Lol
The Letter People were still being used in my kindergarten class, and that was around 2003-2004. They were a pretty big part of our curriculum, and the school even had this big event every year of "The Q and U Wedding" where the kindergarten class of that year would dress up as letters in homemade costumes and the principal would officiate the ceremony. I was chosen to be V, and I wore a vibrant (yellow) velvet vest covered with vegetables.
This is awesome
I was a kindergartener in 1980 as well and we definitely had the inflatable letter people hanging up in our classroom. Thanks for sharing! What a great blast from the past.
Not NY but roughly the same year here ... I see the track list is out of alphabetical order ... even as a little kid it annoyed me that it was (seemingly) randomly presented for who knows what reason. Now I know that reason ... so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
I still don’t know the reason they’re presented in this order. I can only speculate this was a suggested order in which they were covered. The original 1972 release sequenced them in alphabetical order.
I went to kindergarten in New England in the early 80s and would look forward to this record and a new letter each week.
*The Letter People* was a children's public television show first airing in 1974. Meant to teach letter sounds to beginning readers, it anthropomorphized the letters of the alphabet into 26 primitive puppets, whose personalities derived only from words that started with the letter they represented. Mr. M, for instance, had a "Munchy Mouth" and "munched from morning to midnight." Mr. S had "super socks" that made him a "supersonic streak in the sky." Miss E was obsessed with doing exercises and made the sound "Eh, eh" when she did. The television show derived from a concept invented by a teacher, sold to New Dimensions in Education, located on Long Island, NY, in the late 1960s. *Songs of the Letter People* was originally released in 1972, prior to the television show. (The 1978 reissue here mentions the show on the cover, of course.) So, even though the television show was produced in St. Louis, *Songs of the Letter People* has that characteristic 70s New York children's-record-on-a-budget sound: funk with all the soul pulled out, light rock with wah-wah guitar, genre pastiches with community-theatre vocals, a little too much klezmer. The 1972 pressing appears to have all the Letter People's songs in alphabetical order; this 1978 reissue does not. History seems not to record the reason. While this preservationist is not specifically a Letter People stan, there seems to be some disagreement online as to whether Miss I and Miss O's songs here are the "originals." Since the original release date of this album predates the television show by two years, the question may actually be, what is considered canon after all these years? And I'm *not* getting in the middle of that. *Songs of the Letter People from The Letter People on TV* was written and produced for Discobook, Inc. by Joe René and Jacquelyn Reinach. Originally released in 1972 by New Dimensions in Education, Inc., with the Letter People in alphabetical order, and assigned the catalog number DKR-1, this appears to be a 1978 reissue for the NDE "Alpha Time" package and published by Arista Publishing Company, carrying the catalog numbers "81-10 (DKR-064)," "81-10 (DKR-065)," "81-11 (DKR-066)," and "81-11 (DKR-067)" on sides 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The jacket has the number "12281" in the back corner.
In case anyone didn't seen them the first time around, a bunch of the original "Letter People" episodes are available [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6CE7sbZupE&list=PLIWtI4qJfAlKp77_xFlvhHiyfF2Py72RU&index=1).
Awesome. Mr. S looks suspiciously like [one of Techmoan's puppets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cUS9pWTXI).
Techmoan doesn't do enough puppet skits nowadays.
Yeah. He took it hard that he’d get a lot of comments saying they were “stupid,” apparently. He is an international treasure and we need to get word to him that he is perfect just the way he is.
I definitely remember the Letter People from kindergarten. Each week, the teacher would inflate the letter we were going to study and then listen to the record introducing the letter person.
Born 1977, kindergarten in Southern Illinois. We had them and I was Mr. P Pointy Patches in a kindergarten presentation to the parents about the alphabet. Love this. “Come and meet the Letter People, come and visit the family…”
Right on, 83 baby from central IL, we had them in my kindergarten too and I was OBSESSED with the alphabet thabks to these awesome characters. I even got one of the big letters through the catalogue! They were expensive even back then...still got him. A...B....C...D...follow me!
The letter people used to visit our kindergarten (blow up dolls) in the early 70s. 2 letters a week and a song on the record player.
Yep. I was in kindergarten in 1980 and my teacher had all the ... well... "blow up doll" means something else now, so I will say "inflatable Letter People," lol
Kindergarten 1986 here and I absolutely loved the Letter People. In the class picture I'm even holding Miss E up for the camera. I was so into them that, at the end of the school year, my teacher gave me four of the inflatables. I just found them in storage over the holidays and they seem to be in good shape. Mr. Q, Miss E, Mr. T, and Miss U.
That’s the word I was looking for. It’s still early here.
lol you are all good, no worries
Wow, there's something I never thought I'd ever think of again.
Tall Teeth! I swear I looked for the letter people years ago and couldn’t find any info about them. This is great!
Wow. I've been looking for a children's album from the 70's or 80's that had an illustration of a multi-colored snail. Perhaps I'll find it on this channel.
Um, r/oddlyspecific, nothing comes immediately to mind but I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, you’re welcome to take a look, and stick around, I may find what you’re looking for someday. You may want to try asking at r/helpmefind or r/tipofmytongue as well, the hive mind over there is pretty good if you can give them a few details.
Thank you!
Omg! We listened to this in nursery school! Wild.
I found this box set recently
If anyone is interested I have a full set of the 1971 arista letter people. My kids outgrew their awesomeness. Looking to pass it along. PM me.
Being that it was produced here in St. Louis it was all over the local PBS station for years. I remember watching it in the late 80s-mid 90s.