Saying Goodbye to My Childhood Friend <em>Arthur</em>
For 25 years, the PBS show traced the contours of childhood, showing us new ways to navigate them.
In the household where I was raised, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” often felt like the highest commandment. My grandmother, who worked as a nurse on Rikers Island at the peak of the AIDS crisis, fashioned our home in Queens as a place where everyone was welcome. Patriarchs played dominoes in the den and neighbors swung by to say hi. Reggae blasted from our dusty record player while church sermons competed from the kitchen radio. And every day after school, my favorite show’s theme song joined the chorus from the living-room television:
And I say, hey! What a wonderful kind of day
If you could learn to work and play
And get along with each other
That song, which introduced the PBS show , was the leading single on the soundtrack
