Miss Abrams And The Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class

May 10, 2017 9:18 PM

1970, Rita Abrams was teaching 4th grade in Mill Valley (no, not Hill Valley, that was where Marty learned about the Flux Capacitor). Miss Abrams felt that her class had a message for us, they felt that times were dark and America had to "get started again". Two years later Tricky Dick was forced out of office.
posted by HuronBob (11 comments total)

This is wonderful -- and very Mill Valley. I remember taking courses in the other elementary school in the early 1980s, hiding in redwood stumps, and looking for big foot and being gently imbued with leftist politics. We would have loved to sing a president out of office.
posted by SandCounty at 9:43 PM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, and the Mill Valley music video probably deserves a link too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtDCYlkxbNk
posted by SandCounty at 9:52 PM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I find the single comment under the "get started again" video to be.... interesting.
posted by hippybear at 2:51 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't fully understand the connection between Rita Abrams and Watergate. Neither of those Wikipedia articles mentions the other and the YouTube video is "unavailable".
posted by qntm at 3:45 AM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

There was a lot of strife in the U.S. in 1970, but none of it was Watergate-related. The burglary that set off the Watergate scandal didn't occur until June 1972, two years after this recording was made, and Nixon wouldn't resign until August 1974, more than four years later.
posted by young_simba at 4:32 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Two Wikipedia links and an unavailable YouTube video? What's the connection to Watergate? And what's with the Back to the Future reference? The Trump tag? Honestly, I don't understand any of this.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:11 AM on May 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

Wasn't Mill Valley BJ Hunnicutt's hometown?
posted by COD at 5:52 AM on May 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

"Let's Get Started Again" appears to have been released in 1972, not 1970, hence Huron Bob's comment that it was two years later that Nixon resigned.

This post makes perfect sense, guys, it's a sweet little song about lifting America's spirits when things feel like they're pretty un-rad. Comparisons of Trump to Nixon have been flying for the last couple days, so why not delve a little into something that happened around the same time and is meant to be a bit of sweetness? After all, "Only the most hard-hearted cynic could find no enjoyment in this minor masterpiece of early-'70s soft pop." [from the wikipedia]

After all, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. And it's catchy, has a good beat, and I can dance to it.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 6:20 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

"America, Let's Get Started Again" was released in 1975 (the Mill Valley song was 1970, the original album without "America..." was 1972). You could say it was in response to Vietnam as much as Watergate.

I'm just not getting the Nixon tie, which makes the Trump connection tenuous at best, and BTTF was set in 1955 and 1985, making that a bizarre non sequitur. That's a lot of unconnected bits for a single YouTube video that is apparently unavailable to many people.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:15 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

In what seems like a sad coda to this story, and emblematic of the difference between Mill Valley in 1970 and now, Rita Abrams finally had to leave because she could no longer afford to live there.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 11:55 PM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

I swear, though it may be a false memory, WNEW-FM in NYC played this song all the time in the 70s. OK maybe it was WBAI. But I heard it often enough that every time I see or hear the words Mill Valley, the song is what I think of. Watching Mad Men (I would be a few years younger than Sally, but had a similar life and wardrobe), whenever Don went to California I thought of that song. DId it chart? Ah yes, I see it was a Billboard Hot 100 hit.

I've also always confused it with The Langley Schools Music Project, which until now I always assumed was from Mill Valley as well.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:05 AM on May 13, 2017