A co-worker is buying for her niece the big pink paperback of Free to be You and Me<\/i>, created by Marlo Thomas 5,000 years ago (read: my childhood).<\/p>\n
Free to Be You and Me<\/i> was huge to my generation and I am glad to see it is being passed on. It’s very 1970s. It is consciousness-raising masked as children’s entertainment. Women can do whatever they want to do, even be cab drivers, and men can be sensitive and have dolls, and the world will go on turning.<\/p>\n
Marlo Thomas called in favors from all of her old friends, to write sketches, write songs, perform on the album. Her friends include luminaries such as Shel Silverstein, Mel Brooks. People with wit, humor. Non-treacly types.<\/p>\n
My friends and I were in a production of this when we were 11, 12 years old.<\/p>\n
Does anyone else out there have any intense Free to Be You and Me<\/i> memories?<\/p>\n
Here are a couple of mine:<\/p>\n
“There’s a land that I see
\nwhere the children are free
\nAnd I say it ain’t far
\nTo this land from where we are
\nTake my hand, come along
\nLend your voice to my song
\nCome along, take my hand
\nAnd we’ll li-ive
\nIn the land
\nWhere the children run free
\nIn the land
\nOf a green country
\nIn the land
\nWhere the horses are free
\nAnd you and me are free to be
\nYou and me…”<\/p>\n
What else?<\/p>\n
“You’re bald! You’re bald as a ping-pong ball, are you bald!”<\/p>\n
“Brothers and sisters
\nSisters and brothers
\nAin’t we every-o-one
\nBrothers and sisters
\nSisters and brothers
\nEvery brother’s father
\nEvery mother’s so-on…”<\/p>\n
“It’s all right to cry
\nCrying gets the sad out of you
\nIt’s all right to cry
\nIt might make you feel better…”<\/p>\n
“Ladies first! Ladies first!” “BU-URP!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A co-worker is buying for her niece the big pink paperback of Free to be You and Me, created by Marlo Thomas 5,000 years ago (read: my childhood). Free to Be You and Me was huge to my generation and … Continue reading