August 23 - Life’s Singer

On this day in Labor History the year was 1900.  That was the day that folk singer Malvina Reynolds was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco.  Her parents were socialists and operated a tailor shop.  Malvina learned the price of speaking out for what you believe in at a young age.  Her parents opposed US entry into World War I.  Because of this, Malvina’s High School would not issue her a diploma.  She was able to still go the college at Berkley, where she eventually earned her PhD.  She married carpenter and labor organizer William “Bud” Reynolds.   She became a prolific folk singer, playing around the Los Angeles area. During the 1960s she wrote about songs supporting civil rights and labor rights. Her song Free Enterprise offers the lyrics, “The air you breathe is poison, the food you eat is worse, the dollars in your pay check are pennies in your purse…There’s nothing free about it, you pay at every turn, Except the guys in Wall Street who have the stuff to burn, they had to make new brain machines to count their profits’ rise, but since there’s always room for more, they can still make their profits soar, a little war does wonders for free enterprise.” Perhaps her most well-known song is “Little Boxes.” The song was inspired by driving by hillside houses in Daly City, California.  It talks about the conformity of middle class suburbia.