Just sit right back

" I was a child in the sixties
dreams could be held through TV"
- Nanci Griffith, It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go

I am convinced that if I could erase from my brain the lyrics to theme songs from 1960s' television shows, I could learn another language or maybe quantum physics. After all, is it really necessary that I can sing the the entire theme to Gilligan's Island? Or The Brady Bunch? Or The Patty Duke Show? Not to mention The Partridge Family...I am, however, a bit fuzzy on the beginning of The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

Take Gilligan's Island (really, take it!). It ran from 1964 to 1967, but has been replayed about a gazillion times since. I have no idea exactly when the lyrics became lodged in my memory, but they are probably there to stay. What is really odd is that I don't remember watching that much television back in 60s, but apparently I did. Or maybe it just had a profound influence on me.

It is not enough that my brain has been polluted; now I am sharing these crazy songs with A. Many nights after bath and before bedtime, rather than reading books together he chooses to sit and rock with me in his rocking chair. We tell each stories or sing songs, and now, thanks to me, A may be the only five year old in the world who can sing the theme song to Gilligan's Island in its entirety.

There are parents out there that speak two languages to their children, play classical music for them, enroll them in art appreciation classes. Not me - it's television theme songs. Somehow I don't think A is going to thank me for it when he is grown...then again, he can warp his own child's mind with this useless knowledge!