I work in the field of children’s book publishing. Every year, we publish hundreds of children’s books, in partnership with Disney, Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, Dreamworks, Fox, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, Mattel, Peanuts Worldwide, Sanrio, and others. As you know, because you don’t live on Mars, many of these companies publicize their brands with giant character balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Kermit, Spider-Man, Charlie Brown, Buzz Lightyear, Papa Smurf, Hello Kitty, and Spongebob Squarepants, were just a few of this year’s line-up. Big names, right? All year long, I hear proud announcements from all of these partners: “And we will have a [character name goes here] balloon in the Macy’s parade this Thanksgiving!”
Imagine my surprise to see a Virginia balloon in the parade yesterday! High-fived my daughter, Virginia, and sent out some love to my mother and grandmother Virginias (the plural of Virginia looks weird, I know, and autocorrect wants me to change it to Virginians), and to Miss Annie Virginia, for whom my grandmother was named. Train sings an awesome song about meeting Virginia (she wears high heels when she exercises!), and for years, Billy Joel has tried to get Catholic school-girl Virginia to come out and play. Every Virginia knows the first baby born in the Americas was Virginia Dare, born in Roanoke, Virginia. Back in the 1970s, every teen and 20-something girl named Virginia wore a t-shirt, or at least had a key chain, that advertised “Virginia Is for Lovers.” Heh. And yes, there’s a downside to being a Virginia — my driver’s license and Ginger’s high school class composite both name us “Virgina.” This happens a lot. We try to laugh it off, but, well, it isn’t really funny.
Anyway, we Virginias thought the “Yes, Virginia” float was adorable. And Ginger loved that it was a ginger Virginia. Then Virginias all over the world said a silent thank-you that it wasn’t a Francis P. Church balloon. Because as great as his Sun editorial was, his balloon would be just creepy.
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