The Letter People Made Kindergarten Fun 40 Years Ago [VIDEO]

Sorry, I'm tardy, oh that rhymed, but I have a back-to-school story. I realized recently that 40 years ago, I started kindergarten at Wayland Alexander Elementary School in Hartford.

Things were a little different then. I only went half a day, AM Kindergarten, and I was one of the first students to attend a new addition to the school. Even now, I can still remember the smell of the new building and seeing all the new faces I would call my classmates for only a handful of hours each day.

The classroom wasn't a complete room. One of the walls was comprised of gigantic shelves. I remember carpet, a lot of play spaces, a closet where we would put our jackets and book bags, and most of all I remember being introduced to this guy:

Okay, so I could read a little before I went to school. I had the letter building blocks and all that, but this Mr. M, oh my goodness. Each letter was a character and we would see the huggable, inflatable version for each lesson. Mrs. Sandra Black was my kindergarten teacher. She would pull out each character and she would go over all the details and we would learn the corresponding song to each letter.

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I only remember a few of the specific character stories, Mr. M had the munching mouth, Mr. T (before Rocky III and The A-Team, LOL) had tall teeth, and Mr. S had super socks. By the way, only the vowels were female. Miss A sneezed "a-choo!" I didn't even know until years later The Letter People had a TV show that I'm pretty sure I saw on KET.

What are some of your kindergarten memories?