Hi All, In Brattleboro we used to have street numbers like Tamara. Then
Vermont got Enhanced 911. Now if there is an emergency we can dial 911 for
help, just like in big cities.
Oh, lordy, I forgot all about *that* flap... :) Didn't touch *us* (ie within the city limits, where the streets had names already) but, the county... Oh my, oh my, *oh my*! <g>
They used to have numbers for their roads, and names for their addresses... :) The PO was able to cope -- the same postmen are sent on the same routes as much as possible -- but try saying "East 4771a, Fancy Hill Mansion, but there's no sign; look for a big mail box painted yellow, with a spider, on your right side", when your nearest and dearest is turning blue from a stroke/heart attack/petit mal... Then the info has to be passed on from the dispatcher to the rescue team, and the rescue team has to find the place... Sheer madness :)
It took a couple of *years* to reverse the trend, and to get the roads named and the houses numbered. There were no objections to numbering the houses but the battle between the hard-core realists/traditionalists and the newcomers with their PC-pretty ideas was *hysterical* to watch. The newer folk didn't, but *really* *did not*, want to write their address as "350 Skunk Hollow", or "117 Betsy's Sin"; they'd bought the -- re-parcelled -- farm- and wood- land at high price, and thought "350 Primrose Ln" or "117 Sweet Retreat Rd" sounded much better...
The "old timers" won, mostly (betsy, her never retreated; she'd been a hoor all her life) so, the addresses are easier to remember, but, sometimes, quite startling in their inventiveness. 911, of course, didn't care either way as long as the places were easy to find :)
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Tamara P Duvall
Lexington, Virginia, USA
Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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