Jackie in Massachusetts shares her mishearing the name of the beloved character Mr. Green Jeans on the old Captain Kangaroo TV show. She was in college before she realized his name wasn’t Mr. Cream Cheese. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Captain Kangaroo’s “Mr. Green Jeans” Misheard as “Mr. Cream Cheese””
We got a voicemail that I really appreciated from Jackie Serebrini-Kesner, who lives in Massachusetts, and it was about misunderstanding a name.
She said, I used to watch a show called Captain Kangaroo and loved it. You’d know you’d have to take out your cardboard shoebox and your scissors and your papers and paste and colored paper and construct these wonderful things. And one of his friends was Mr. Green Jeans.
And as a child in the 60s, we only had a black and white TV. So years later, she goes to college and she’s talking in, I think it was a child development course about art and literature for children. And she said, I thought I had this great example of how they rushed you through the art activity. By the time they have all of your supplies that they needed, they were finished making the entire creation. And how much I loved Mr. Green Jeans because he understood and gave you more time.
But at the time, I referred to him as Mr. Cream Cheese. Because, again, remember, we had a black and white TV. And as a little Jewish girl growing up in upstate New York, I grew up having bagels and cream cheese. So I always thought it was Mr. Cream Cheese. Bless your heart, Jackie. And so the whole class laughed at her.
But I have to tell you that I had this epiphany when I listened to this voicemail. Because I had a black and white TV as well when I watched Captain Kangaroo. Yes, we did too. And I did not know until yesterday that Mr. Green Jeans wore green jeans. I did not know this. I went online and looked at all these old pictures of him. He wore green. It never occurred to me.
I watched Captain Kangaroo in the 70s on a black and white TV, a remote station out of Paducah, Kentucky. Yeah, absolutely. And I just assumed they were green. You did? I think I thought he was green, like growing things. So I was shocked. Mr. Cream Cheese, though. That’s the best. Oh, kids are wonderful, aren’t they? I love that. We have an endless capacity to absorb your childhood misunderstandings, and we will laugh with you and not at you.
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