me to a T - Tracey Odachowski

Get ready for a totally pointless post! But I was at the Village, and someone asked about city name stories. This is what came to mind. Do you have one?

My story…

I grew up in a town named Pittsville. Try not to laugh too hard. To give directions to my house, when choosing the three roads at the fork, I had to tell people to take the one w/ yellow lines because, yes, the other two didn’t even have lines. Even more, if you’ve watched the Wizard of Oz, then you could get to my house. ‘Follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald Green City’ became ‘Follow the yellow dotted lines to the mint green house’. Yes, the dotted lines ended just feet before one of our driveways. My husband now drives past my mother’s house every time we go home because, God forbid, they extended the dotted lines. Good thing that mom has a large half circle driveway that he can catch the second entrance. I have freaky hick stories (like…my brother’s ex-wife was my father’s ex-wife’s ex-husband’s sister, which made my ex-stepbrothers my brother’s nephews…I’m not kidding, by the way). I laughed at people on game shows who said, “I live in a small town of about 5000 people.” Yeah, they don’t know what ’small town’ is. Pittsville had a population of 450 people. I’m sure it’s in the 1000s now b/c of some development (heck - they are even getting a Food Lion, which is SHOCKING!) I never used drugs because when I would go out, my mom would say, “I know people. I have eyes. They are watching you.” I was too scared that there really were people watching! (which, I’m sure there were!)

But here’s the thing…why do people laugh at the word ‘Pittsville’, but not ‘Pittsburgh, Pittsboro’ or any other ‘pitts’ town that I have encountered over the years? Pittsville was actually named after a very prominent doctor named Dr. Pitt. Yeah, lucky us that was his name. US Rt 50 runs right through the town - you know, the national highway that starts in Sacramento, CA and ends in Ocean City, Maryland? (btw - I have actually seen both ends of it…kinda funny. Growing up I always saw the sign in OC that said, ‘Sacramento 3053 mi’ at the start of Rt 50. And you know what? There is a sign in Sacramento that says the same thing about Ocean City!) Anyway, years ago, before Rt 50 was built, the only way to get into OC was via train, and the main train depot was in Pittsville. It’s now a tax office. Oh, and Pittsville was once the Strawberry Capital of the World. Our little claim to fame.

The point of my story? I don’t know. Perhaps just to prove that a name shouldn’t define the place. Perhaps just to prove that where I grew up really wan’t half bad! But that is my name association story.