My bride is from Kenosha. I have found that people outside of the Midwest are sometimes unfamiliar with the names of some of our midsized and smaller cities. When SPI published in the late seventies the classic game, The Creature That Ate Sheboygan, a fair number of gamers thought Sheboyan was fictitious.
When I was stationed at Great Mistakes (I mean Great Lakes) Naval Training Center when I was A School back in 1985, those of us who were under 21 used to venture into Kenosha on the weekends unless we had duty. That was because the drinking age in Wisconsin was still 19 and I was 19 at the time. I was still imbibing at the time. I don’t anymore and haven’t for some time. As a result of a night of imbibing and events I still have little recollection of, I earned a trip to a Pleasant Prairie jail. I think that’s the county Kenosha is in or another town I don’t remember. That was my last memory of Kenosha, such as it was.
And since I was in the Navy at the time, it amuses me to know that idiotic adventure of mine was taxpayer funded.
How about Towanda, Illinois? (No, Kathy Bates doesn’t live there)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b9Z3MYo2M0
I recall eating my way through Sheboygan once … Brats, curds, smoked whitefish … Good times. I can’t blame the creature. 🙂
Nice to see Pawtucket RI, locally pronounced Paa-tuc-it with an almost Brooklyn accent on the list.
And Woonsocket RI, locally pronounced Wooooooon-soc-it with a heavy French Canadian accent. Also known as “The Land of One Way Streets.” (I can see where I want to be… but-)
Nothing beats Lake Chaubunagungamaug, in Webster, MA.
Algonquian, it means “you fish on your side of the lake and I’ll fish on mine”
– no fishing in the middle, divided lake.
Durango
Walla Walla
Newburyport
Taos
These are towns, not cities.
Oconomowoc
Waukegan
Pawtucket
These are suburbs, not cities.
==
Kenosha
Chattanooga
Laredo
Kalamazoo
Spokane
Woonsocket
Pocatello
Honolulu
Sheboygan
Flagstaff
These actually are cities, though some are the municipal core of a larger whole settlement. Don’t know why he fancies ‘Laredo’ and “Flagstaff” are great names.
Can’t leave out Dripping Springs, TX, just down the road from Austin. Also in the Austin vicinity is Pflugerville, TX. And of course there’s Luckenbach, TX, immortalized by Waylon Jennings in song some years back. It does actually exist, a bit southeast of Fredericksburg, the home town of Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Permit me a nostalgic digression, if you please: When I was a youngster, my Dad and I spent many summer evenings listening to Harry Caray broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games on KMOX radio. Harry used to read notes sent up to him by fans from all over, to show the broad geographic range from which the team draws fans. One of his (and my) favorite towns was Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. 🍓
“And of course there’s Luckenbach, TX, immortalized by Waylon Jennings in song some years back.”
chuckles I heard that about the same time as Mac Davis’ song about seeing Lubbock, TX, in his rearview mirror.
No,
Pawtucket is not a suburb of Providence, and RI is not an island off the coast of NY -as a Texan told me once. Jeez.
https://www.pawtucketri.com/
Pawtucket is not a suburb of Providence, and RI is not an island off the coast of NY -as a Texan told me once. Jeez.
?auto=webp&s=19b3b6f927985cb2f721bff75a565849a04c27a9
Here is a population density map of Rhode Island. The red portions and the two darker shades of brown consist of tract development of a density exceeding 1,000 persons per square mile. Pawtucket is located in the red zone. The border with Massachusetts in the northeast quadrant of the state forms an inverted ‘L’. Pawtucket attaches to the foot of the “L”. The southern border of Pawtucket abuts Providence and East Providence.
I haven’t a clue what you fancy a ‘suburb’ is, but whatever idiosyncratic usage you favor, it is mistaken.
Has anyone else here been to Borger, TX?
In any case, I’ve been to, or drove through, about one-third of the listed garden spots.
My in-laws (RIP) Albuquerque next door neighbor was a former WII POW [Germans] and hailed [he said] from Booger Holler, Arkansas.
In Indiana:
Floyds Knobs
Oolitic
Kokomo
Loogootee
and of course, French Lick (home of the great Larry Bird.)
Other Illinois towns:
Oblong
Grand Detour
Goofy Ridge
Paw Paw
Shobonier
San Jose (pronounced “San Joe’s”)
Vienna (pronounced Vy-anna)
New Berlin (pronounced New BER-lyn).
Pawtucket is a City not a Town.
Pawtucket is a City not a Town.
The State of Rhode Island can change the nominal designations of its municipalities and you come back to me and tell me “Pawtucket is a Latrine not a Garbage Dump”.
Your point would only be of interest if we were discussing the actual municipal law of Rhode Island. Which we’re not.
David WS, Art Deco,
My original home town of Grand Island, NE, (approx 52K pop) and my current residence of Omaha, NE (approx 487K)….will never compete with various well-known cities. An Air Force SSgt I knew once referred to Omaha as a large town, while many will view GI as a …town. ..For my purposes, both are cities, if smaller than others. If you want a town, look at Kearney, Norfolk, Columbus, or North Platte.
I dare say some residents of those towns will be rather irritated with that designation. We’ll all give each other fits about village v town v city, regardless of our State.
For remarkable names, Nebraska comes from Sioux (or Oto) word “nibrathka”, meaning “flat water”, in reference to the Platte.
Not to far from Oconomowoc is the small hamlet of Reesevile WI.
Funny story…Mark Hamel, Star Wars fame did a B movie there in the late 90’s.. ReesEVILe. A bomb.
Be careful while driving in southern Michigan….you could very well end up in Hell. Hell Michigan. Another small hamlet. The mayor of Hell used to be a cat. Jinx. I’m hoping that Joe Biden considers retirement in Hell. It will feel like home to him. They have a memory care home there;
Sulphur Shores.
Oh.
Don’t forget Boyne Falls.
Home of Boyne USA resorts.
Great family run business that has grown into a impressive enterprise.
Yuba Michigan.
Small, one building hamlet.
The Yuba creek feeds into East Bay, Lake Michigan.
A great spot for a Scuba Center.
Yuba Scuba. :^)
My original home town of Grand Island, NE, (approx 52K pop) and my current residence of Omaha, NE (approx 487K)….will never compete with various well-known cities.
For what are you competing. Omaha straddles the border and has about 600,000 people living in tract development, 90% on the Nebraska side, 10% on the Iowa side, and sprawled over three counties. Personal income per capita is about the national mean. The concentration of people and purchasing power is sufficient to support a university medical center and research university (though the main campus of yours is in the state capital). It will support corporate HQ of consequential businesses. You’ll have a critical mass for a triple A ball team, for a symphony or philharmonic, and for an arena which will make it worthwhile for touring bands to stop there. You’ll have fine dining and a handsome central library. You won’t have a bourse or off-Broadway of course. You will have something worth maintaining.
In SE Florida, the best way to get from Loxahatchee to Okeechobee is by way of Pahokee through Port Mayaka 🙂
“Omaha straddles the border…”
shakes head Be careful of needless urban bias. Grand Island lacks Omaha’s wealth and size, sure. It still has several of the traits you mention, if on a much smaller scale. I attended many outdoor concerts given by the municipal band and plays put on by Little Theater. They may not be prestigious; they’re still quite worthwhile.
I suspect if you took a poll of Council Bluffs, you might find many quite irritated at your description including them in Omaha. ..Some of Ralston, Papillion, La Vista, and Bellevue might take umbrage too. …So would Elkhorn and possibly Millard too, except they’ve both been annexed, the former more recently, I think neither was entirely happy about it.
Amongst all the interesting names, we ought also remember Weeping Water and Broken Bow, both in Nebraska. ..And we have a Cairo, too, thought it’s pronounced differently.
Lest I forget, there’s a Lake Okoboji in Iowa. My cousins went there once. Lake Manawa too.
Art, My wife was born in Pawtucket. Her family is from Pawtucket. My family is from Pawtucket. When my wife and I were first married we lived in Pawtucket. Pawtucket is a City, not a Town or a Suburb.
I don’t know what else to say, except maybe..
GET OFF MY LAWN.
I don’t know what else to say, except maybe..
GET OFF MY LAWN.
I’m not on your lawn. I’m pointing out your lawn abuts the next guy’s lawn and his abuts the lawn of the guy two doors down, that the mean frontage of all these lawns in Pawtucket runs to about 70 feet, and these lawns cover the entire land area not devoted to commercial property, government installations, and thoroughfares. And abutting Pawtucket is Providence, which is also entirely built up and where the frontage averages about 65 feet. It’s not a city; it is a part of a city.
I suspect if you took a poll of Council Bluffs, you might find many quite irritated at your description including them in Omaha.
It shouldn’t irritate them. It’s a fact of the built environment. The boundary between Iowa and Nebraska is a legal-administrative boundary. That has some consequence, but the distribution of commerce, employment, and of property values in Council Bluffs is still going to be influenced by the reality that it is part of a larger whole and not a discrete community. Ditto the other places you mention.
Grand Island lacks Omaha’s wealth and size, sure. It still has several of the traits you mention, if on a much smaller scale.
Urban geographers classify settlements by the sort of services which tend to emerge as the size of agglomerations increases.
“Urban geographers classify settlements by the sort of services which tend to emerge as the size of agglomerations increases.”
face palm I know.
..I’ve long been disgusted with urban geographers for precisely those causes. One’s home need not be populous to have substance. Size helps with economics of scale, sure. It’s not the only point. Too many municipalities do immensely stupid things in the name of “being urban”.
Incidentally,… what’s your beef with tract housing? People living there aren’t wealthy, true. They still have dignity. Such areas tend to be more navigable too; developers didn’t “get fancy” with curved streets. Wealthier parts of town, on the other hand….shakes head
Amusingly, many people living in cities near Omaha, …seek a smaller community, partly because of Omaha’s taxes.
..I’ve long been disgusted with urban geographers for precisely those causes.
That urban geographers have a taxonomy is a strange reason to be ‘disgusted’ with them. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone outside the world of professional geography express an opinion about urban geographers.
One’s home need not be populous to have substance. Size helps with economics of scale, sure. It’s not the only point. Too many municipalities do immensely stupid things in the name of “being urban”.
You’re arguing with a phantom in your head.
Incidentally,… what’s your beef with tract housing?
No complaints at all. My reference to it was for descriptive purposes.
In western Maryland, Flintstone is about 50 miles west of Frederick.
Continue westbound on I-68 and you will find an exit for Accident, MD.
Western Pennsylvania has yunz beat, n’at. Houston is ten miles from Washington. Eighty Four is ten miles east of Washington. The old Pittsburgh airport terminal was in Moon. North of Pittsburgh is Mars amd northeast is Apollo. Oakland is a Pittsburgh neighborhood home to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Verona, Nottingham, Whitehall and (North) Versailles can be explored without an international flight. Sharon, Elizabeth and Jeannette are here. Ambridge is a contratction of American Bridge. Library is a town, not a library.
Coraopolis, Perryopolis..who has more “opolis-es”? Ohio Township and Ohiopyle (home of Fallingwater) are both in Western Pennsylvania.
Bedford, Uniontown and Greensburg are Pennsylvania municipalities with namesakes in Ohio. On the other hand, New Castle is not just in Delaware, but in Western Pennsylvania. Brookline is in Massachusetts? Nah, Pittsburgh.
Mount Washington, Mount Summit and Mount Pleasant…got ’em all. Farrell, Scott, Baldwin, McDonald..not just names…towns.
I will end it with two townships and one county named for the Marquis de Lafayette…North Fayette, South Fayette and Fayette County.
This topic started out fun …
“…from Loxahatchee to Okeechobee is by way of Pahokee…”
grins CAG, sounds to me like if you take a wrong turn, your may wind up in the pokey. …Or the swamp.