I had All Sport today for the first time since (probably) elementary school. Most people, I am sure, have never heard of All Sport but it is a sports drink similar to Gatorade and Powerade (but not as good). When I attended Camp Sydney R. Baer at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in elementary school, All Sport sponsored Sports Camp, a camp that the JCC also had in conjunction with Camp Baer. They advertised on the back of their camp shirts.
During my sophomore year of high school, I acted (I guess you can call it that) in my synagogue’s production of South Pacific. I really like the musical, as I do most productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
I just rewatched the DVD with my family today and was thinking about just how much I enjoy this musical. There is a lot going on here and it has some of my favorite love songs, some of which are included below. I noticed something though during this viewing of South Pacific that I had missed previously: the show may be “revolutionary” in terms of its pushing the limits with interracial love and marriage.
South Pacific actually has elements of a diversity lesson in it – that skin color is not as important as feelings or who people actually are. A white person and a Polynesian person can fall in love, have children, marry, etc. More importantly, South Pacific shows a key lesson through this: hate, prejudice, and discrimination are learned – i.e. you are not born hating other people. This is a great truth and something that I hope got highlighted at the time of the show’s popularity as well.
Here is the song, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught”, although not the original version:
I thought I had forgotten this.
Joel Portman 