Help me ID a book about an old man and his overflowing tub

December 23, 2015 12:56 PM

I'm trying to find a children's book done in very scratchy pen and ink style (with color), about an old man whose bathtub is overflowing with hot water and he keeps getting gloves and scarves and things to wrap around his hands to try to reach in and pull the drain plug.

I remember it being read on TV (in like, Reading Rainbow fashion) maybe by Bill Cosby (but I may be conflating Picture Pages with something else) or on the Electric Company. This would have been somewhere in the 1977-1983 range? Illustrated book, done in very scratchy pen and ink style (with color), about an old man (I think an old black man, but maybe I'm just remembering Cosby) whose bathtub is overflowing with hot water and he keeps getting gloves and scarves and things to wrap around his hands to try to reach in and pull the drain plug.

posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I'm not able to recall the title, but if it helps I'm pretty sure that this story was only one of several in the book in question, i.e. this was a book of short stories.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:12 PM on December 23, 2015

Best answer: Here it is:

The Gordon of Sesame Street Storybook.

...including the story you're looking for, previously published here.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:17 PM on December 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks!
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 2:59 PM on December 23, 2015