It’s time once again to dig deep into the Way Out Junk archives to bring you another installment of “Way Out Wednesday.” This week, we spotlight the wonderful children’s album A Calendar of Happy Thoughts, with songs written and performed by Selma Rich Brody. While I never actually owned this album when I was younger, Fred Dunagan, my best friend and next door neighbor when we were kids, had some 45s with a few of these songs on them. We always just thought of them as silly, catchy little tunes. Now that I’m older, I see them as catchy little tuneswith some pretty nifty messages.

The concept was that you were supposed to have a song for each day in a month, and then I guess they expected you to start over at the beginning of the next month until the messages stuck. I’m highlighting quite a few of the songs because I had a problem deciding what I wanted to include here. Don’t worry — I think you’ll like them anyway!

The first song here is called “The Special Expression Song.” After Ms. Brody pounds into your head the importance of thinking about things, she sings a nice little song about remembering to shake hands, saying things like “please,” “thank you,” and “May I please be excused?” when you want to leave the dinner table. And pay attention because there’s a test at the end!

Selma Rich Brody – Special Expression Song

Our next song is “The Pet Song,” where she explains how you should take care of your pets because a dog can’t go to a restaurant when he’s hungry, a cat can’t take an aspirin when she’s sick, and your fish can’t knock on his fishbowl if he needs clean water, which (to my knowledge) is all true. (more…)