When I was in the third grade, 8 years old, I had a ritual of rushing off the bus, running into the house and turning on the television to watch one of my favorite children’s programs. My favorite show in 1965 featured a tall, thin man playing a guitar and singing folk songs geared to children. For the past 10 or so years, I have been searching for anything about this show with no luck — until now.

Third grade in the Boothbay region in the mid 1960s was a combination of chapter books, cursive handwriting and mathematics; “Get your number two pencil sharpened Nancy Drew, because after long division with third grade teacher Maxine Cutts, and chasing shuttle blocks with itinerant gym teacher Evelyn Keene, Mrs. Catagan is coming to show us how to write in cursive, no more printing for us.”

The days at the East Boothbay Elementary School (now fire station)  were long and packed with activity. After climbing many stairs up to the second floor several times a day, two 10-minute recesses and a half hour recess after lunch, we were bused to the center to wait for another bus to take us home. I was more than ready to get home to mom’s homemade peanut butter cookies and children’s television after school.

There were a couple of black and white children’s programs that I remember the most — Cap’n and the Kids (with Lloyd Knight) and Music Theater with Jan Kok.

Knight was a rather large man who wore a captain's hat and dark coat with stripes on the sleeves. He spoke with a thick Maine accent and would interview a whole room full of grade school students, who stood on tiered bleachers at the WGAN studio in Portland, Maine. My class went to this show when I was in the third grade. We stood on the risers, Cap’n Lloyd gave each of us a white paper bag filled with candy; we were told not to open them until after he had interviewed us. 

Under the bright lights of the studio, Cap’n Lloyd brought his microphone to each of my classmates. He asked our name and questions like, “Do you like the show?” or “What’s your favorite candy?” and then he asked if there was anyone we would like to say hello to. Most of the children would say, “I’d like to say hello to my mother and my father and siblings,” etc. … I remember that there was one little boy who had a speech impediment and he said, “I’d like to say hello to my Muhva and my Fahva,” which was followed by a lengthy list of siblings. Cap’n Lloyd was getting antsy, hoping to get on to the other children, but we were all laughing in the background and crinkling candy wrappers despite our instructions not to. 

The Knight show featured local children and after the children’s interview, he would showcase old films, such as the Bowery Boys, who were always getting into trouble. You can Google Lloyd Knight today and find him reciting poetry from memory and what fond memories he brings back for me. I was not so fortunate however in finding my “first” after school friend, Jan Kok, of the children’s program called “Music Theater.” As a matter of fact, I thought his name was Cope and I didn’t even know the name of his show.

A couple of months ago, my friend Frances Scannell and I went to Stonington. Walking along the waterfront she spotted a small building with windows covered up and signs on the door. She beckoned me over and said, “Have you heard of Evelyn Kok?” I said, I had not. She said, “She was a medical illustrator and an artist, and this building was her studio, she passed away a few years ago.” 

I went home and looked up Mrs. Kok and found out that her husband’s name was Jan Kok. Bells went off, perhaps the Jan “Cope” that I have been looking for, for so long, is really Jan Kok. Fortunately, Evelyn had a website managed by her niece, Christina Shipps. I emailed her and to my surprise Jan Kok was exactly who I was looking for after 10 years. FINALLY!

Christina Shipps, Jan and Evelyn Kok’s niece, informed me that her Holland-born Uncle Jan was living in Presque Isle. A retired music professor from the Aroostook State Teachers College, forerunner of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, at 95, was still active and playing his recorder with a small group weekly. He had put aside his beautifully hand-painted (by Evelyn) guitar due to arthritis. 

Shipps said that back in the 1960s, rural school districts couldn’t afford music programs. As a result, the Maine Department of Education and The New Hampshire School of the Air asked Kok to create a television music class for both states.

As a young girl, Christina was invited to stay in New Hampshire during vacation week, with Aunt Evelyn, while Uncle Jan left each day to produce his music show in Durham. Professor Kok’s educational program was called, “Music Theater.”

The half hour music program featured Jan Kok playing guitar and singing little folk tunes he and his wife had composed. The first of 62 episodes was a story featuring live animals. Jan and Evelyn’s pets were placed in a natural-looking prop and the story was narrated as the animals sniffed and explored all the while being accompanied by music. One animal in particular that Jan remembers, was the star, a jet black guinea pig named “Ink Spot,” who walked along a stream and talked to a mouse who seemed to talk right back to him. 

The animals in the Music Theater show, through my eyes, were delightful; however, for the Koks, it was unsustainable because the animals wouldn’t do quite what was required of them and lost their contracts, so to speak. The Music Theater would continue from when Kok acquired his copyright in August of 1960 and played for at least six years after this. 

According to the copyright, the show for music instruction, produced by Ray Matheson, was geared to kindergarten through third grades and was to be broadcast twice a week on the WENH station in Durham New Hampshire.

During the creation of Music Theater, Kok took a year’s absence from teaching at UM Presque Isle. Kok wrote the scripts and music for the show. Though it was to educate children about music, the episodes were so much fun that you had no idea it was “educational.” 

Jan and Evelyn, as a result of the show, were asked to perform at all of the elementary schools in the Presque Isle area.

“They brought things from the kitchen to teach children to make music with, without having to buy musical instruments. They later performed at weddings and other venues. My aunt made Christmas cards each year with an illustrated carol and music for the receiver to sing,” Shipps said.

The Koks were a rare gift to Maine — Evelyn with her artwork and music composition and Jan for his wonderful songwriting and singing geared to children. He added levity and inspiration to my and many other baby boomers’ lives. It is a privilege to be able to pay tribute to these special childhood friends.