He Built This City

A couple months ago, the city of Burbank erected (hehe!) a statue of Mr. David Burbank, across from the Costco we drive by quite frequently. He is the man who founded this fine city my family and I now inhabit. One day early last week while driving by Sonya asked,

"Hey mom what is that?"

"That's a statue of Mr. Burbank. He's the man who... ummm found Burbank, so they named the city after him," I explained hoping that was the easiest explanation for a five year old. It must have been, because she didn't ask anymore questions about it at that point. I'm pretty sure in her head this guy just came upon the city as it is now, and decided to name it after himself. I figured her fifth grade Social Studies teacher can give her the longer explanation.

A few days after that first question we drove by the statue again. This time Sonya asked me,

"Mom, is that Mr. Burbank guy dead?" I'm not sure how all of a sudden we got so morose, but I've heard a few other friends telling me that their kids are inquiring about death around this age.

I just said,"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, Sonya. He lived a while ago, I think."

She was quiet for a minute and then said, "Well, it's a good thing he found Burbank before he died!"

This caught me off guard and I laughed completely out loud. She didn't understand why what she said that was so funny. I told her she was cute and it WAS a good thing he found this city.

Good thing indeed, because without him, we'd be living in North Hollywood.