Rita Abrams, “Mill Valley” Songwriter, Priced Out of Marin Town

How could Rita Abrams leave Mill Valley?

When she can no longer afford her home.

Abrams was 26 when she wrote a song about the Marin town that ended up on the Billbord Hot 100 list in 1970. Now, 44 years later, she's selling her Shelter Ridge condo and moving on.

She can't afford to live there anymore, the Marin Independent Journal reported.

The town has changed drastically since she wrote the tune on a park bench on Christmas Day in 1969, according to the newspaper: bo-ho has become frou-frou. One-time humble cottages command $1.5 million price tags.

Hot tub culture may still live on, but the water is rarefied.

Abrams became a musician and performer after she recorded her song with some of her third-grade students at Strawberry Point school. She also shot a music video, directed by a man named Francis Ford Coppola.

Since then she's made ends meet in a variety of creative ways. But circumstances now dictate a sale of her condo, her second home in the town.

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