You really can't go home again

I was watching a Sesame Street DVD with Akshara yesterday, and I suddenly went still. Something wasn't right. Something... Oh no! It was Bert! He was different. I'm not just talking about his voice - that didn't make me bat an eyelash. They changed the stuff inside.

Ernie always gets the spotlight. He's the kid in all the skits. He's funny and naughty, and decidedly gleeful when he gets away with being both. He's the one with the US Top 40 hit "Rubber Ducky". He's the one who whines till Bert gets him water when he's thirsty in the middle of the night.

But quiet Bert, poor Bert, kind Bert, book-reading, fish-gazing, pigeon-feeding, striped-pajama-wearing Bert, resonated with something in me. I got Bert. So I noticed, when Bert changed. I hadn't seen Sesame Street since my own childhood, but I noticed.

His personality was different. He wasn't the protector counterpart to Ernie's wide-eyed perpetual youth anymore. He wasn't the long-suffering, patient room-mate. He was smug, almost... and just the tiniest bit self-important.
"You may know about Baseball, Ernie, but I am the expert in Pigeons." he said.

I was gobsmacked.
Holy-attack-of-the-bodysnatchers, Batman! Who are you and What have you done with Bert???

Just like kids nowadays aren't like the kids from my childhood, the Bert Akshara will know, is not the Bert I knew.
I mourn.
I will miss you Bert.