September 22, 2008
You Are Where You Live
There are some strange-assed roads where I work. I can't fathom where these names come from. I suppose these peoples were somebodies once upon a time. Lookit:
See what I mean? The best I can figure make up out of thin air is, Rat Kinney was the mayor once. He married Pickle Simon, so named because of her promiscuous use of Massengil's.
As for Chicken Lyle, wasn't he the house slave in Roots? Or was that Chicken Mel? Perhaps Chicken Lyle toiled for the Kinney-Simons, who rewarded him with a road name after years of faithful service. Along with posthumous emancipation.
Crazy, this place. There's also a Punkin Junction Road, and a Cronictown Road. I swear. I'm agoing to Cronictown tomorrow, and see whaddup. Might even get some insight into this.
Who know?
Chicken Lyle? Wasn't he Chicken Little's teeless brother-in-law?
We used to have a local area street in northwestern New Jersey called Shades of Death Road. Really. People kept stealing the street signs, so they started calling it simply "Shades Road" on the sign.
Posted by: Elisson at September 23, 2008 6:16 AMWhen you're dead, we'll name one Monkey V-man. And people across this great land will drive by and say, WTF?
We have one here called Nameless Road. That's its name... or is it?
Posted by: Dash at September 23, 2008 12:05 PMI have seen a "Chicken Dinner Road" in Idaho, and near here there is a "King Tut Road". Always makes me want to walk like an Egyptian ...
Posted by: PeggyU at September 23, 2008 4:08 PMWent moose hunting one time off a road near Jackson Montana..Bloody Dick Road
Posted by: GUYK at September 23, 2008 4:37 PMIn Jacksonville, there was a rabbit trail leading to an erstwhile trash-dump. Later, it started to look like a road, and then the suburbs moved out there and some developer bought up the land. But folks kept using the rabbit trail road and dump until he posted a sign saying No Road!
It's now a nice suburban street named Noroad.
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at September 23, 2008 7:09 PMI think I lived on the next road over, Joan. It was called NO EXIT. The houses were nice but the neighbors were a damned existential bunch.
Posted by: Velociman at September 23, 2008 8:18 PMDown the street from me is a road named Beer Belly Boulevard. No kidding.
Posted by: livey at September 23, 2008 11:42 PMYour next book, Velociman ... on the origin of strange street names. You have a lot of writing to do! Key had better chain you to your desk so you can get it done. On second thought, a chain and a desk might not be the right approach ...
Posted by: PeggyU at September 24, 2008 1:38 AM...but a dog collar, a bullwhip, and a leather dirndl might be.
Key and Vee can fight over who wears the dirndl.
Posted by: Elisson at September 24, 2008 11:27 AMNot sure, but I think the I.R.S. office in Fresno is located on Ben Dover Avenue.
Posted by: JihadGene at September 27, 2008 10:49 AMI have relatives that live on Sonny Boy Lane in Johns Island, SC,and friends on Catch-A-Trout Rd. in Union County, GA. I'm still obsessed with the infamous Skate-R-Bowl Rd. overpass on I-16 going down to Savannah - does the Skate-R-Bowl still exist? Can one, in fact, skate AND bowl at the same time?
Favorite town name: Round O outside of Summerville, SC. Reminds me of that line from Raising Arizona...
"Do these balloons blow up into funny shapes?"
"Only if you think round is funny."