Gilligan

God, I was just trying so hard (it's late at night; really late) to remember the theme song for Sesame Street, but all I was coming up with was the Gilligan's Island theme.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligan's Isle.

So this is the tale of the castaways,
They're here for a long, long time,
They'll have to make the best of things,
It's an uphill climb.

The first mate and the Skipper too,
Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In the tropic island nest.

No phone, no lights no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primitive as can be.

So join us here each week, my friends,
You're sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castaways,
Here on "Gilligan's Isle."

On this show there was usually a brief, slapstick cold open, transitioning into a truncated version of this theme. But every so glorious often, they would start with the full theme. I remember sitting in the den at my grandmother's house, planning out what I'd watch with the TV Guide, and the frisson/ joy of getting the full theme. It almost obviated the desire to watch the rest of the episode. I sang along loudly.

Which reminds me:
Even as a child, I was extremely cynical about the idea of God, and the hypocrisy between some of my parents actions (actions I now know are uniformly virtuous) and their faith. But I was really into some elements of churchgoing:
1. Donuts, and going to my parents' sunday school class instead of the one for kids, and feeling precocious.
2. "Popcorn prayer," where everyone stood in a circle and talked candidly about what they want and need to feel comfort in life. I would like to do this with my friends today.
3. Hymns.
I remember walking around in the woods at my grandmother's and singing elegant mash-ups of hymns and the Gilligan's Island theme. Sitting on mounds of moss or dropping beads of bittersweet into a stream on one side of a culvert, running to the other side to see if they made it out, proudly singing and thinking about the Skipper and God.