My mom loves to send books to Jessie. Jessie knows the titles and asks for them. She doesn’t ask for the title entirely, but enough of it that we know what she’s talking about. For instance, Mommy Moon is My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. Hippo book could be anything by Sandra Boynton but is usually All the Hippos Go Berserk, which we have three copies of.
I was so excited when Mom sent Free To Be… You And Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends . I grew up on Free To Be… You And Me. The show aired probably once a year and I couldn’t wait to see it whenever it was on. We owned the eight-track tape, which had the entire program. I also had the book. While I don’t have the eight-track anymore, I saved the book. Before we had children I would watch the girls down the street some days after school. When Bailey needed something to read I gave her Free To Be… You And Me and the story Ladies First specifically.
I’ve been reading Jessie the stories from her book. I remember a lot of them and even the songs. There are some stories, though, that seem to be updated for political correctness today. There also seem to be new stories that reflect today’s world instead of that of the era it was written.
I need to sit down with the new 35th Anniversary Edition and my original book from 1974 to compare the two to see if my suspicions are right. Yes, there are new titles in the new edition. The poem Housework is missing. I’m glad I kept the original book. I have the DVD on my Amazon wishlist; I wonder if it’s the version I remember.