Thursday, June 3, 2010

Funny Names / Serious History

Texas has an immense highway system. It's been said by more than one Rackley that one can drive eight hours in any direction from Austin and still be in Texas. Along these highways are urban skylines, rural vistas, historical markers, and a plethora of funny, odd, or just plain weird names. But with a funny name, there's always an interesting story. Isn't that right, Ima? Here are just a few examples:

The town of Carl's Corner in Hill County is just under two square miles that was once only a truck stop. Now it's a town. Willie Nelson has roots there. Check this out for more.

There's Bobo Baptist Church in Bobo, Texas. There's Buda, Uhland, and Gruene, none of which are pronounced phonetically. There's Pflugerville (I went to high school there—nuff said).

I happened upon another one today on the way to San Antonio via I-10 through Seguin. This is what I found:


For the rest of my road trip, I imagined origins for such a unique name. On his first anniversary, a man took his best dog fishin' instead of takin' his wife to dinner at Clear Springs. All he could think of as he cast into the tiny stream was, "She always yellin' at me!" I could go on, but the real story behind the name is a bit more fascinating. I don't believe in ghost stories at all, but apparently they make great fodder for naming newly discovered bodies of water.

I think I'll make FNSH a regular part of my blog. Probably not weekly or even monthly, but definitely as I come across more funny names with serious history. In the mean time, party on Dime Box!

3 comments:

Amanda Uhlig said...

My bro is a coach for the Dime Box Longhorns!

sean said...

Awesome! There isn't much on Wikipedia about Dime Box or why it's thus named. Does your brother know anything about it?

RoachGroup Staff said...

I don't know anything about the name Dime Box, but my mom told me stories of how in the old days they used to have to call the automated dialer every morning there from the AT&T office in San Antonio to "wake it up" so people could get/make calls in Dime Box. It's amazing how technology has changed so much, especially in telecommunications. Sorry, off subject a bit, but I saw "Dime Box" and just had to share.