School Bonds

As a student at Van Ness Elementary School in the mid 1920s, my father and all his classmates were taught a little song to sing to their parents to encourage them to vote for a school bond similar to the one now facing voters in the upcoming April 8 election that will upgrade and modernize deteriorating classrooms in Los Angeles.

He called me from his home in Palm Springs and suggested that Mayor Richard Riordan, state Sen. Tom Hayden and the school board teach the same song to students today to motivate their parents to support Proposition BB (Feb. 18).

Sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the song goes like this: “Oh mother can I go to school, to get an education? Go play in the street, there’s three in a seat, was mother’s explanation. Vote the bonds, we need the cash, to keep the school rooms handy. Yankee Doo, and this means you, Oh Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

RICK SANDACK

West Hollywood