or Language on my Travels
by David Horowitz
Many of my favorite anecdotes from my travels are about language–clever wordplay and distinctive names of places, establishments, and people. Here are six:
(1) During one all-night Greyhound journey from St. Louis to New Orleans, I saw a sign on a Dairy Queen in Jackson, Missouri. One of the restaurant's specialties: "Pecan Praline Parfait." Yummy alliteration!
(2) During that same Greyhound trip, just past Sunday dawn, we barrelled through flat, forested, foggy Mississippi. The sun soon burned away some of the fog, as we passed through the small towns. One of those towns?–Hot Coffee, Mississippi. Yes, the name is real! The town exists! What a wonderful name!
(3) During a bus tour of San Antonio missions, our guide and driver related his description of rival Dallas: "Dallas is denim and diamonds." Bus drivers can be poets!
(4) During one of my periodic Greyhound jaunts out of Nashville while a graduate student at Vanderbilt, I saw a lean man in jeans and sleeveless T-shirt with two names tattooed on one of his biceps: "Jesus Christ" and "Jack Daniels." That combination resonates in one hundred different, revealing ways.
(5) During another of my grad student Greyhound jaunts I ventured north to Toronto. We passed through Middletown, Ohio, where I saw the front sign of a tavern named "Lifted Spirits." Such rich double meaning!
(6) While vacationing in Hawaii, I rode on a tour bus headed from Honolulu to the North Shore area of Oahu. I had studied some Hawaiian before my trip, so I knew the name "Nani Wai" on an apartment building we passed meant "pretty water." Immediately I felt I would see a pretty stream, river, or lake. Sure enough, not ten seconds after passing the apartment building, I could see a small, tree-lined river curling near the apartment. I felt thrilled to see that river!
While traveling, language can excite as much pleasure as can historical sights, natural beauty, and charming local folks. Stay alert for the possibilities!