Do you remember your childhood? All of the songs and stories you were told like “Rock-a-bye Baby” or “The Three Little Pigs” or even “Cinderella?” They were great to listen to, especially when your parents probably wanted to keep you entertained instead of running around causing a ruckus. For instance, back when VHS tapes were big, my mom bought me and my sisters a lot of VHS tapes to keep us occupied. We learned so many stories and songs that are probably ingrained somewhere deep in my brain. Out of all of the tapes, my favorite tape was “The Three Pigs Sing a Gig.” It sounds weird, I know, but it was awesome. It was something my mom probably got tired of because we put it on replay almost every day. My baby sister and I recently found a recording online and it sparked up old memories. But then I listened to what the characters were saying and it turned out to be more than my 4-year-old self would expect.
After helping his eldest brother into his brick house to keep them safe from the wolf, he finds the wolf in disguise of a sheep trying to get close. Of course, the youngest pig doesn’t believe him and shows how clever he really is to the wolf with a mini monologue:
“Mister Wolf, it's cool that a pig is your favorite dish, but there’s something I really wish. Would you please consider our point of view? Suppose you were a little pig too, and everyone thought of you as food. Wouldn’t you think it’s rather rude? I’m not a hunk of bacon, a slice of ham… I’m Larry Piggy, that’s who I am!”
He continues on to explain that he is not a fricassee, which is a meat stewed in gravy. The rhymes, the rhythm and the horrendous sight of bulging eyeballs on pigs mixed into a mini-musical created an impacting lesson for my sisters and I— a lesson of standing up for yourself against others who see and treat you differently. That is one of the many lessons we have learned from as we grew up.
Living in a more modern and digital age, we have everything at our fingertips, including access to the past. Stories and songs have been passed down for generations, sometimes altered from the original. Their messages have meaning, whether it's on a positive or negative note. For example, the lullaby “Rock-a-bye Baby.” It sounds like a sweet melody to sing to an infant while rocking them gently asleep, but have you seen the lyrics?
“Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop;
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall;
And down will come baby, cradle and all.”
Why would we sing a lullaby about a baby falling from a tree? SMOSH gives a brief theory that it stems from when settlers encountered Native Americans who used to put their babies in tree branches to let the wind sway them to sleep. Somehow it was metaphorically altered to symbolize birth where the tree is the mother, the wind is her contractions, the bough is her water breaking and the cradle is the placenta. Life instead of death. What a theory, right?
There is a twist to every story, every song, every tale and lullaby we have come across. Over time we have managed to romanticize them and give a happy ending even if life doesn’t correlate with it. Take a look at your childhood, and see what changed from then to now. I guarantee that you’d have a different perspective.
