A new DVD release of the first few Sesame Street episodes from 1969 includes this disclaimer: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

I was already a preteen when the show debuted, so don’t blame the Street for how I turned out. But I certainly remember the show’s original, pre-Elmo incarnation.

I remember identifying with Oscar (whose lucid if negative zeitgeist was treated with patronizing laughs by the human stars) and Bert (whose intelligence and earnestness only made him an easy target for Ernie’s “friendly” harassments).

I remember a creeping sense of regimentation behind all the committee-written, consultant-contrived, lesson-planned “fun.”

And, of course, my quickly dirtifying pubescent mind could think of new and innovative ways to play “Which of These Things Belong Together?”

In recent years, I’ve rediscovered the now un-PC Muppet song “I Want a Monster to Be My Friend.”

Heck, for that matter, a lot of Sesame Street moments took on a whole new understanding the day I learned the Canadian slang meaning of the word “cookie.”