Sesame Place

Now there are none. The last amusement park in the Pennsylvania suburbs of Philadelphia has died. The corpse is West Point Park, near Lansdale in Montgomery County. It's just a small place down a side road, an old place under a tall stand of old trees. In Montgomery County, West Point has died. In Bucks County, Sesame Place lives. But the Pennsylvania Bureau of Amusement Rides and Attractions - the state agency that regulates such things - has defined Sesame Place in Langhorne as a "kiddie ride operation," not an amusement park.

Saturday marks a milestone as well as this year's opening day for Sesame Place, launching its 30th Birthday Celebration season. Sesame Place, the theme park based on the award-winning TV show Sesame Street, opened July 30, 1980. It was developed on three acres as a way to bring Sesame Street's values to life through play. It has grown to 14 acres with more than three dozen interactive activities, including water attractions, whirling rides, a roller coaster, stage shows, and musical parades.

The Twiddlebugs, the most politically correct residents of Sesame Street, moved into their new - make that recycled - home at Sesame Place over the weekend. For those unacquainted with the "Sesame Street" posse, the Twiddlebugs are tiny, winged, beetle-like creatures who live in the flower box outside Ernie and Bert's window on the popular PBS children's show. They find all sorts of good ways to use the junk other people toss. The Twiddlebugs have set up housekeeping this summer in Sesame Place, the Sesame theme park in Bucks County.

Big Bird, Bert and Ernie will join the other superstars from TV's Sesame Street tomorrow for the 10th birthday celebration of Sesame Place. The Langhorne attraction opens its 1990 season with a daylong schedule of festivities including a parade (weather permitting), musical entertainment and the cutting of a giant birthday cake. Youngsters can assist in cutting the cake and can help decorate an enormous greeting card. Sesame Place's Opening Day 10th Birthday Celebration at Sesame Place, New Oxford Valley Road, Langhorne, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Enjoy a Fourth of July barbecue, parade, and fireworks this weekend during Sesame Place's Independence Day Weekend Fireworks. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday outside Big Bird's Riverside Pavilion, and again from 7:30 to 8:30, guests can enjoy a barbecue feast with their furry friends, and characters from Sesame Place will perform. The park will have a "Neighborhood Street Party" parade at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Immediately following the parade will be a fireworks show set to Sesame Street music, until 9:30 p.m. Park admission is required to attend events, and parade and fireworks schedules are subject to change.

Throughout the area, environmentally-aware children are educating their parents about conserving energy and reminding them to recycle. Tomorrow, children can make their own "Pledge to the Earth" at a special eco-event sponsored by Sesame Place. Youngsters who attend "Environment Awareness Day" at the family-oriented amusement park will receive a certificate from the nonprofit Children's Earth Fund acknowledging their commitment to preserve the Earth. Other scheduled activities include a performance of original rap songs about the environment presented by area elementary-school children and emceed by rap music writer/producer Grover Washington III at 1 p.m.; an exhibit featuring "Recyclasaurus Rex," an 8-foot-long replica of Tyrannosaurus rex made entirely of recycled cans by students from the Cook/Wissahickon Elementary School; continuous demonstrations on how to bake cookies using a solar box cooker, and an interactive presentation of "Environmental Tales," by the Sesame Players at noon in the Circle Theater.

Swooshing water. Upbeat music. They are familiar sounds to the thousands who flock to Sesame Place each day. But it's not the fountains at Little Bird's Birdbath or the Sesame Street theme playing in the background. Instead, water gushes from three firefighter hoses, washing away the previous day's smells, cigarette butts, sand and mulch. And, on the park's speakers, the Sesame Street theme is replaced by a Billy Joel tune. It is 6 a.m. - three hours before the Langhorne park opens.

You know the Twiddlebugs - those cute little critters that live in Bert and Ernie's flower box at 123 Sesame Street. This year, Sesame Place will provide the full Twiddlebug experience, in its larger-than-life Twiddlebug Land.

After 13 years as the park of perpetual perkiness, Sesame Place will finally feature a dash of "yuck. " Three new characters will welcome visitors to the theme park on opening day Saturday, including the garbage can-occupying, sardine-eating, pickle juice- drinking cuddly curmudgeon and veteran TV star, Oscar the Grouch. The 25-year-old Sesame Street original has apparently decided to break into other aspects of show biz and spread his grouchiness around. According to public relations spokeswoman Sharla Feldscher, he will launch his new theme park career by greeting visitors and performing in choreographed shows.

Special Events The Murder at the Philadelphia Museum Scavenger Hunt Murdered curator has left a trail of clues connected with secrets in works of art at the PMA. Your job - to figure out who dunnit! Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. & Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.; 877-946-4868 (GO HUNT). watsonadventures.com. $38.50. Annual Model Railroad Open House Interactive train installations, Thomas the Tank Engine, scavenger hunt & more. Schuylkill Valley Model Railroad Club, 400 S. Main St., Phoenixville; 610-935-1126.

A new Christmas spectacle starring Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Santa is giving a late boost to Bucks County tourism in what has been a turnaround year. And 2012 "looks like a great year," with three historic events and a renowned exhibit of European art promising to draw visitors, says Jerry Lepping, executive director of VisitBucks, the county's tourism agency. "The problems are starting to recede," Lepping said last week about tourism, second only to agriculture as a revenue producer for the county.

Celebrate "A Very Furry Christmas" beginning Friday at Sesame Place, which presents the new show for a 19-day holiday cycle. The celebration continues through Dec. 26, featuring three new shows: Elmo's Christmas Wish, Sesame Street Christmas, and Elmo's World Live! Happy Holidays. Also featured is The 1-2-3 Christmas Tree Show. The park will have 300 trees decorated with lights, toys, rubber duckies, and more. A 25-foot tree will be trimmed with choreographed lights and Sesame Street decorations.

Enjoy a Fourth of July barbecue, parade, and fireworks this weekend during Sesame Place's Independence Day Weekend Fireworks. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday outside Big Bird's Riverside Pavilion, and again from 7:30 to 8:30, guests can enjoy a barbecue feast with their furry friends, and characters from Sesame Place will perform. The park will have a "Neighborhood Street Party" parade at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Immediately following the parade will be a fireworks show set to Sesame Street music, until 9:30 p.m. Park admission is required to attend events, and parade and fireworks schedules are subject to change.

Families can help Kids Rock for Kids raise money for a good cause during a special event Sunday at World Cafe Live. At 11:30 a.m., kid rock bands from the Music Training Center's Rock 101 program will perform. Donations from the concert will be given to various local children's medical charities. The concert series, which takes place throughout the year, has benefited organizations including Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, the Crohns Foundation of America and Kids Smiles, nonprofit dental centers.

The prom was a sparkling spectacle of tiaras, tuxes, DJs, and dancing. No matter that many of the 100 pint-size attendees sported wheelchairs, intravenous poles, bandages, and bald heads. One prom-goer, Rachel Kovach, 11, of Highlands, N.J., has been chronicling her care for a rare bone tumor by blogging for The Inquirer at www.philly.com/OncoGirl . She had major surgery to salvage her right leg May 3 and resumed intravenous chemotherapy Thursday just hours before the prom.

"I didn't leave any [expletive] kid in the car!" According to a former colleague, those were among the words Stacey Strauss uttered the night of July 24. They came shortly after Strauss, a residential counselor at Woods Services in Bucks County, was told by phone at home that the severely autistic man in her care that day had been found dead in the locked and superheated van that Strauss had last driven. In the same conversation, Strauss insisted that she left 20-year-old Bryan Nevins in the care of another worker after they returned from an aborted outing to nearby Sesame Place, Woods Services worker Larry Holliday testified Thursday.

The staff at the carefully tended campus at Woods Services in Langhorne offer their developmentally disabled clients not just an education, but a "safe" place to live with "close supervision" and the kind of therapy that might one day allow residents to live in a community setting. But Saturday, that hope ended tragically for Brian Nevins when the severely autistic 20-year-old died after being left in a parked van for five hours. "With the temperatures Saturday, in a closed vehicle, it probably reached 125 or 130 degrees in an hour," Bucks County Coroner Joseph Campbell said Tuesday.

Bucks County officials are investigating the death of a severely autistic man who had been left alone in a van after a trip to Sesame Place on Saturday, when an excessive heat watch was in effect. Bucks County Coroner Dr. Joseph Campbell said today that Brian Nevins, 20, a resident of Woods Services in Middletown Township, died of hyperthermia after being left alone in the van for five hours. "With the temperatures Saturday, in a closed vehicle, it probably reached 125 or 130 degrees in an hour," he said.

Saturday marks a milestone as well as this year's opening day for Sesame Place, launching its 30th Birthday Celebration season. Sesame Place, the theme park based on the award-winning TV show Sesame Street, opened July 30, 1980. It was developed on three acres as a way to bring Sesame Street's values to life through play. It has grown to 14 acres with more than three dozen interactive activities, including water attractions, whirling rides, a roller coaster, stage shows, and musical parades.