"Little Boxes"

Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There’s a pink one & a green one
And a blue one & a yellow one
And they are all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there’s doctors & lawyers
And business executives
And they are all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they´re put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry & raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same,
There’s a pink one & a green one
And a blue one & a yellow one
And they are all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

                                    -Malvina Reynolds  1962

I remember hearing this song in my very urban grammar school and thinking “what happens to the little girls?”

The following blog is what happens to that particular little girl, now an overeducated yet underemployed mother of three, and married and living in suburbia.  The real story is how she tries to undo all of that, except the mother part, of course.