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Behind the Sun: Talk of the town
Hippie schoolmarm brainwashes youth with tale of socialist utopia...

by Jason Walsh

40 years ago

From the Sun vaults, July 22 - 28, 1970

America was "talkin' 'bout Mill Valley" 40 years ago this week.

It was summer, 1970—and the bells were striking midnight upon the nation's hour of chaos. The U.S. military was storming the Cambodian border, the bloodied Weathermen waged anarchy against the federal government and merciless National Guardsmen mowed down angry student demonstrators at Kent State U.

But there was still one little place where life felt very fine and free—where people weren't afraid to smile, and stop and talk to you a while.

Yes, music lovers across the country were turning on and tuning in to the West Coast utopia described in Strawberry Point kindergarten teacher Rita Abrams' hit single, "Mill Valley." Miss Abrams' detailed account of her North Bay Brigadoon of boundless creeks, towering trees and unremitting friendliness made the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" landscape seem like an industrial-waste dump in comparison. The single, officially credited to "Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point Fourth Grade Class," drew radio airplay across the country and earned the self-described hippie schoolteacher write-ups in Rolling Stone, a photo session with Annie Leibowitz, an offer for a Jell-O commercial (she turned them down) and guest slots on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the Steve Allen Show and a video of the song directed by Francis Ford Coppola. (YouTube it, you won't be disappointed.)

"It all began," wrote Sun managing editor Don Stanley in July of 1970, "on Christmas morning when Miss Abrams took that now famous walk through town, watched the kid on his new bike, exchanged some smiles, met a dog and then wrote the song."

"The song," inspired by her Christmas constitutional, was originally intended as something simple that her kindergarten students could handle. But when she played a tape of the kids belting out "Mill Valley" to her record-producer pal Erik Jacobsen—who'd worked with the Lovin' Spoonful—he insisted they cut the kiddie canticle as a single for Reprise Records. After upgrading to 9-year-old Strawberry Point voices and promo-ing the 45 for record-company execs, Reprise demanded a "rush release"—and the label's roster of Hendrix, the Kinks, Frank Zappa and Richard Pryor grew to include a group with a 7:30pm bedtime. The rest was child-chantey history.

"The best thing the record has done is stop my parents nagging me to get married," the hit-making schoolteacher told the Sun. "Now they're proud that I'm 'Miss Abrams.'"

Though in the song Abrams contemplates "a time I'll have to leave Mill Valley," she still makes Throckmorton Boulevard her stomping grounds. She left teaching in the early '70s to pursue a musical career—and after a series of children's albums, countless songwriting partnerships with Elmo "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" Shropshire, and several long-running musical theater productions to her credit (For Whom the Bridge Tolls and New Wrinkles, among others), Abrams has carved out a successful career from the base of Mt. Tam. She even had a "Mill Valley" 40th anniversary reunion with the original Strawberry Point Fourth Grade Class—now in their late 40s—and is working on a book about the song.

"Mill Valley is still a wonderful place to live," Abrams says. "There are a lot of yuppies and people interested more in money than quality of life, but you'll always find that you can't do anything to hide the beauty of the mountain and the redwoods."

Despite her triumphs in stage, song and screen (she was married to Marin filmmaker John Antonelli), Abrams remains dubious about whether her decision to leave teaching was the right one.

"If I had a crystal ball, I may have stuck with teaching," she says. "It's been a tough road making a living creatively. There have been a lot of great things about it, but it would have also been great to influence so many lives of so many kids over the years."

Adds Abrams: "And I'd be retired by now, which would have really been amazing."

Help Jason compose 'The Novato Song' at jwalsh@pacificsun.com.