Text 33115, 62 rader
Skriven 2009-06-06 10:20:15 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 33098 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: No Lions? Bullshit!                 Was: Absence apology
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05 Jun 09 05:39, Bob Ackley wrote to Michiel van der Vlist:

 BA> Replying to a message of Michiel van der Vlist to Roy Witt:

 MvdV>> Waterloo is in Belgium.

 BA> There's also one in Iowa, USA.  There's also a Moscow up in Idaho
 BA> someplace. USAians weren't too inventive in naming their cities and
 BA> towns. A LOT of US cities and towns share their name with European
 BA> cities and towns (which had the name first).

Many other places got more inventive, naming their cities and towns after
Saints, activities and first settlers.

I grew up in a town called Freeport, which is what it was in the 1850s; a
free port on a river that was used for trading (most trading spots on
rivers in those days charged a 'docking fee'). Settled first by a man
named Baker, many things in town are named after him. The river that runs
through it is called the Pecatonica, which some settlers upstream used to
name their town. The name is derived from an Illinois indian tribe who
called it that. In their language Pecatonica means; Muddy Water. Which is
what it is, to the point of being yellow in color. Just like the river my
parents used to live on, called Yellow Creek.

A town SE of Freeport was called German Valley, because that's who lived
there.

Rockford, a city due east of Freeport is named for the river that passes
through it. Which is called the Rock River and the settlement was a place
where you could 'ford' that river by using the rocks as stepping stones.

The river is named for an island called Starved Rock, where the river
joins the Mississippi. The island is where a band of indians starved to
death, rather than give up to the white man.

You live near a town called Emerson, probably named after it's first
settler or a benefactor to the settlement.

I'd say those places that are named after someplace in Europe either had a
bunch of homesick settlers or the settlers had no imagination. Or maybe
they had hopes of building a dream city, where none of the Europeon
influence would be allowed. Places like New Amsterdam, New York, New
Orleans or the whole area of New England. And yes, even the German
community of New Braunfels, TX...

Some places are mis-named in my opinion. Hell, MI should be in Arizona,
where it gets hot and stays that way. Corpus Christi, TX (the body of
christ) is a big misnomer and should be called Bad Beaches and Muddy
Waters. They have Padre Island to thank for the mud. Even Padre is
mis-named and should be called Hurricane Blocker Island. East of here is a
small town called Lulling. I suppose the residents thought of that name
becaue they hardly ever had anything going and the hot weather probably
lulled them into afternoon siestas. They pronounce it loo-ling, but I know
better; there isn't two Ls in the name for nothing.

                R\%/itt

Joy lives in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in
the victory itself.

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