Bonus Post!
I LOVE "Free to Be You and Me". My parents did not "raise me" on it, but I did "grow up" on it!
I do not remember who first showed me the book but, by high school, it was one of my "Bibles." I knew almost all the stories and lyrics by heart.
In college, a good friend gave me her well worn copy of the book. I treasure it to this day.
I made my husband read the book before we got married!! (He did not love it like I did, but I married him anyway.)
Of course, I read the stories and sang the songs to my kids. I still do, when they let me.
Check out this great site with all the words to Free to Be You and Me. (warning: you might start singing out loud....)
I wonder, how many of you love it like I do? (please leave a comment if you do!)
Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.
With love and optimism,
RivkA
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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17 comments:
Not into it myself, but my Barnard freshman roommate was majorly into it and even fantasized about a life on the road performing in revivals all over the country.
Mazal tov on the bar mitzvah.
YES !!! We are definitely "kindred spirits" - I had the book too complete with songs. I was tempted to find the video and see if they had made it a DVD so I could add it to my collection (next to SchoolHouse Rock!). I remember there was one "story" that had two babies - a boy and a girl in a crib talking to each other and I just thought it was the cutest thing! Thanks for the link too. :D
We have the album on vinyl and on CD.
Me! Me! I love it! "William's got a doll...." I bought my first son a doll based on that song. He loved it. :-)
We do we do! And now our kids do too :)
Hi, I am a first time commenter- I found my way here from somewhere or other a few weeks ago and I have been entirely caught up and wish you only the best. I just introduced my 5 year old to the movie free to be and she loved it- but could not for the life of her understand why anyone would think a boy should not play with dolls! In her gan there is no real distinction and boys play with them all the time! I was so glad to hear our world has come so far!
I have the book and love it!
I loved it too, and I have a CD of it!
oh my gosh - i absolutely love it. i remember elementary school and my girlfriend would dance and sing to it all the time. i want to buy this for my daughter - i don't think my son will be too into it. oh what great memories you brought up - thanks
laura in pa
I so can't believe that only nine people responded!!
Well, those of you who did are AWESOME!!
Tesyaa -- Thanks! Were we in the same class?? (I can't remember). Who was your freshman roommate?? (maybe email me that off line)
Engineering Goddess -- I have SchoolHouseRock too!! (on videos!! DVDs were not around, or not widespread, when my eldest was little!) The title of my last post was from that dialog (of the babies)!
Jack -- Excellent!! Do you still have a working record player? We got rid of our when we couldn't get needles for it!
Sarah -- *sigh* (need I say more??) I still cry when I sing that song!! (my kids just laugh at me!)
Toby -- Yay!! Spread the love!! :-)
Happy Duck -- Welcome!! I love that your daughter was shocked by that!! I gave all my kids the same toys and was so surprised when, as they got older, my girls gravited towards the dolls and my son to LEGO (where he made rocketships and airplanes). All my "nature vs. nurture" theories flew out the window!! In our kids' ganim (kindergardens), all the kids were welcome to play in all the pinot(playstations) as well. I do remember my youngest daughter complaining that some of the boys did not give the girls a chance to play with the building blocks.
Shelly & Rahel -- Tee hee!! :-)
Laura in PA -- You might be surprised about your son! To this day, my son appreciates the humor in the baseball story (I forget what it is called and the website is missing that one!! And I'm too tired to go look it up). Remember? "Dear Richard, I pitch. Your former friend Janet"
"William Wants a Doll" is based on William's Doll, a children's book by Charlotte Zolotow. On the album, it was sung by Alan Alda.
Do you own that book? If so, I would LOVE to read it!
I can hear all the voices from the album in my head! (And I can name most of them without looking!)
theres also free to be a family, theres a really cute story with a cinderella who is really spoiled and does nothing and is unhappy. i wonder where that tape is. love free to be you and me, although i think the 'everyone hates housework' was a very bad msg that is still instilled in me (yes i know the point was for men to do their share, but it still got the msg into our heads to hate housework. wonder if theres a connection btwn bad housekeepers and free to be you and me people. )
I don't own the book, but I'll see what I can do.
In the meantime, here are some links:
William's Doll on Wikipedia
William's Doll on Charlotte Zolotow's website
From the JCC in Manhattan website
faith/emuna: Yes, I remember the admonition to do housework together... but I also interpreted the piece as teaching us healthy skepticism about advertisements ("she's earning money for learning those speeches...").
Faith -- I heard of Free to be a Family, but I have never actually heard the album. I would love to. Do you have it?
I never realized that Housework was not about men doing their share, I just thought the message was that we should do it together! I always liked that message! I did not need anyone to convince me that "housework is just no fun" -- I pretty much got that right away. (though I have met some pretty odd sorts who do enjoy housekeeping -- go figure!!)
There might be a connection between bad housekeepers and Free to be You and Me. Who knows.
Maybe the connection is just that people with free spirits don't like to do housework!! I certainly don't!
Rahel -- thanks for the links!
And I agree with what you wrote about the "Housework" piece teaching us about false advertising!
I was exposed to it for the first time only a few years ago (via Merkaz Hamagshimmim's show) and absolutely loved every word.
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