Thanks to the new Target ads I can't get this theme song out of my head. I knew when I heard those first banjo plinks that it was Free to be You and Me, and I remembered all the words. What I didn't know is what an emotional connection I had with this song. Yesterday morning before work I had to look up the song and hear it in it's entirety. I immediately started to sob, really sob. Not sad painful tears, but I think happy ones. If you were in elementary school in the mid seventies you more than likely remember the series from PBS and probably got to watch it at school too. I can remember how much I looked forward to each segment. I was especially in Love with When We Grow Up with Michael jackson & Roberta Flack. Okay, it just struck me how damn sad and tragic the irony really is, but I digress. In 1974 my sister and I had been with our adopted family about a year, I was 9. I guess this series was just what I needed at a time when I felt like an outsider at school and home. Also wondering if the banjo was familiar to me at that age, since my mother had played one. Hmmm.
Thinking it's time to fix up my mom's banjo and learn to play.
I'm a little bit older - elementary school in the 60s - but I do know what you mean, about how evocative those things can be. i'll keep my fondness for "turkey in the straw" and Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" to myself (i had the little 45s for my Fisher Price record player - 'baby elephant walk' too, I'm now remembering), because the memories fill me with emotion and it wouldn't make much sense to others. But i DO know just what you mean.
also: i was on the uncle jay show once and when i think about it, i know how it felt into my bones.
Posted by: Lori | Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 01:00 PM