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I’D LIKE TO BUY THE WORLD A COKE…
Photo by Schuyler Knapp/Hunt Country Aerials
CALM BEFORE THE STORM…
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he calm before the show. This year’s Upperville Colt and Horse Show takes place June 1-7 with the final $100,000 Upperville Jumper Classic on Sunday, June 7.
IT’S TRADITION
www.middleburglife.net
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June 2015
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ill Backer didn’t watch the finale of “Mad Men,” the popular AMC series on the advertising business back in the day. But when the phone at his Smitten Farm began ringing off the hook the next morning, including a number of calls from various media outlets, he knew he’d probably have to get a copy and take a look and listen. That’s because the iconic commercial and song “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke,” written by none other than Backer himself back in 1971, appeared at the end of the very last episode. Backer, the creative director for a New York advertising agency in the 1970s, told the N.Y. Daily News that he stopped watching Mad Men after the second season because, he grumped, it had become “more of a soap opera…more about the tangled lives of the people and less about the industry they were working in.” Backer turns 89 this month and now has a horse-breeding farm in the Middleburg area. He told the N.Y. Times “I’m not Don Draper,” a reference to the handsome, hardliving, often conflicted main character in Mad Men. “I certainly don’t watch shows that center around people that I have a hard time identifying with.” The Coke song came about when Backer was flying to London with several colleagues to meet with a musical group about to record several other commercials. Their flight was diverted to Shannon, Ireland because of heavy fog over England. Inside the terminal in Ireland, Backer saw many of his fellow passengers—young, old, men, women, all different sizes and races—talking and drinking warm Cokes. He picked up a napkin and wrote down “I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” The rest is history, from one ad man to Mad Men, even if Bill Backer wasn’t watching.
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ach Spring, following the Middleburg races at Glenwood Park, a little-known tradition takes place. The racing colors of the winners are re-painted on the iron jockeys at the main intersection of town. Sheila Wiley Harrell worked in the race office this year and took on the artistic challenge with great aplomb. Not only did she paint them, but, once completed, she wheeled them into place and lifted them on to the designated spot. The grey with blue stripe silks belong to Sharon Sheppard, owner of Ajzaa, winner of the first division of the Paul R. Fout Sport of Kings Maiden Hurdle race.
IS THAT...?
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magine the surprise Clint Burlett had at his home one recent morning
COMMUNITY WIDE SERVICE
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on’t miss the Community Wide Worship Service Celebrating the 40th Historic Free Church Homecoming on Father’s Day Sunday, June 21 at the Middleburg Baptist Church. A potluck picnic will follow the service. For details call 540-6875222. The Reverend Matthew A. Zimmerman, Pastor at the 1st Baptist Church in Warrenton and first African-American to serve as Chief of Army Chaplains, will preach this year’s ecumenical sermon. A South Carolina native, Reverend Zimmerman, brings solid experience to the task of preaching to the five congregations that will gather for this unique service. A graduate of Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, Reverend Zimmerman went on to become the first African-American to earn a Masters of Divinity from Duke University. He later earned a Master of Science degree in Guidance and Counseling from Long Island University which supported his later service as a campus pastor at Idaho State University and Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina.
HELPING BUTTERFLIES
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rom Highland School in Warrenton we have received an update on the lower school butterfly garden…Early in the fall, Mrs. Solm’s first grade class fell in love with butterflies as they watched monarch pupae metamorphose into butterflies, prompting many questions about their insect friends’ lives, safety and migration. A trip to the library answered many of their questions about the monarch butterflies and their migration to Mexico, but created even more. They realized that their butterfly friends were endangered and their numbers were historically low. The first graders decided they had to help. They made a list of whom they needed to talk to and what they needed to do to help this incredible species. Their belief in that they could help was contagious. Their first priority was to “talk to people who know more.” Second was “build a butterfly garden.” Highland parents generously offered their labor and expertise to the project. Lower School students will return in the fall to find caterpillars metamorphosing and adults storing up body fat from nectar as they prepare for their migration journey. Children will study the caterpillars, collect and report data on the numbers that they observe, and tag released monarchs in hope of tracking them back to Mexico. The garden will remain, allowing the students to continue to watch and support the monarch’s life during their years in Highland’s Lower School.