Increase Service, Improve Success…
Study this list of words:
OK, got them? Now look at this list and tell me the relationship between the two lists. Take your time.
Driving back toward god’s country, Tennessee, I noted a marker along Mississippi Highway 61 pointing to Bobo. I’ve seen the sign on previous trips, and it always teases at least a wry smile, if not an outloud chuckle, from me. I made a note on my hand-held device, the ubiquitous 3×5 card in my shirt pocket, to check it out later.
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Back home, I found the big road atlas and started combing the alphabetical index of towns in Mississippi. What a harvest it turned out to be! The two lists above are comprised of names of Mississippi towns. I have not had time to explore any other states, but I know that Tennessee also has its share of winners, so I would assume others do too.
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In addition to many towns with female names like Alice, Janice, Lena, Louise, Paulette, and Thelma, the Magnolia State has a rich heritage of names derived from Native American words. Those include Hiwannee, Tchula, Itta Bena, and Shuqualak (pronounced sugar-lock by the local citizens).
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But who can begin to explain towns with names such as Hard Cash, Scooba, Chunky, Longshot, Hot Coffee, Panther Burn, Rafn, Soso, Whynot, or my personal favorite, Zero?
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By the way, the words in the title to this post, Increase, Service, Improve, and Success, are also Mississippi town names. I cannot leave Mississippi without thanking them for their generosity in naming a town for me, Winstonville. It is over in the Delta not far from Bobo, so maybe next trip I’ll take time to check out the local nightlife…
7 Comments so far
Back in my living-in-Mobile days, I was especially fond of the name Hot Coffee. My then-wife and I even drove there one day to see it. We made a joke that the town’s mass transit system was probably called the Expresso.
Have a look at a thorough gazateer of Texas place names. You’ll even find a town named Nameless.
This is a great post, Winston. I expect the nightlife in Winston to be jumpin’… well, no, not really. Ha! I find Maryville on a regular basic, so I’ve taken to looking for my postal address in different communities, looking to see who lives at “555 Central Avenue” and wondering if I should own the address wherever I find it. That game has turned up some interesting discoveries.
About your “hand-held devices”… I recently read a reference to these handy cards where they were called “data buses.” …thought that worth the mention.
How fun! My favorite California town is Azusa meaning I was told, everything from A to Z in the USA.
Winstonville? How cool is that? I’m always amazed at some of the names of towns and cities in the USA. I’ve run into some pretty strange ones too, but I haven’t seen any Joyville so far. Thanks Winston.
PA has Bird in Hand and Intercourse. KY has Rooster’s Lick. Here (NC) we have Frog Pond, Clyde is near Waynesville which is north of Sylva and Franklin.
Since Lorna works for the post office, we tend to notice street names a lot. On her route she has Potato Branch and Rabbit Ham and Hooker’s Gap.
Conversation at the post office between David and Larry:.
David: You ought to get a PDA. It has a calendar, you can keep phone numbers and addresses, take notes.
Larry: I’ve already got something that does that. It’s a BPP.
David: A what?
Larry: A Ball Point Pen.
Regarding the PA towns referenced above:
The old joke, or at least one version, that I heard often when living in that region was “Bird In Hand and Intercourse are on the way to Paradise” (except, of course, that it’s true when you drive through the area).
Heh.
I also like the town names of Tingley, IA, and What Cheer, IA.