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Strange Streets?

Category: Life

Published on Wednesday, 16 June 2010 05:00

Written by Paul Roy

When driving behind the dirty windshield all day you do begin to wonder about some things. Lately I have been musing over street and road names and wondering on their origins.

Now, some are obvious and pretty common. You have your Main Street, Central Street, North Street, South Street. All pretty common I guess. And you have the normal grove of tree streets, Elm, Chestnut, Cherry, Oak, Maple, Sycamore, Willow. And there are your place names like Park, River, Mountain, Valley and Brook.

If a town ever had a railroad through it there may be a Railroad Avenue or a Depot Street. In the northeast we have many old mill towns which come with Mill Street, Mechanic Street, Brewery Street, Water Tower Road and Worcester MA now has a Wal-​Mart way.

And of course there are the strictly practical and unimaginative names, A Street, B Street, First Street, Second Street, etc. or roads named for the towns they connect, Oxford Street, Hudson Street, Holland-​Sturbridge Road, Stafford Turnpike.

Now the origin of these names is pretty self evident, you can tell by reading them where the name originated. But then there are these:

• Skunks Misery Road, Templeton MA – I’ve seen this road so I know it exists but for the life of me I have no clue as to why it would have been named this. Was there a den of skunks which had to be removed when they built this road? Perhaps the skunks ate some bad garbage and had a case of … well let’s say digestive trouble. I honestly don’t know.
• Burnshirt Road, Philipston, MA – This is not far from Skunks Misery. The obvious conclusion one can make as to the origin of this name was somehow one of the original settlers of the region had an accident involving some homemade spirits and a pipe.
• Mystery Lane, Athol, MA – Perhaps we’ll never know about this one. (Think about it, it will come to you).
• Goodblood Drive, Ayer, MA – This one could be obvious I suppose, it may be named after someone or it may not be. Good blood is better than bad blood I suppose.
• Devil’s Lane, Brimfield, MA — The home of the Brimfield Antique show is also home to Devil’s lane. Was there some type of strange worshiping practiced on this quiet country lane?
• Rocking Stone Road, Barre, MA – I was unable to locate a rocking stone when I had the occasion to drive on this little road. I also was unable to locate an un-​rocking stone. It is my opinion the rocking rock isn’t rocking anymore as it rocked right off the road.
• Dingley Dell Road, Brimfield, MA – Dingley Dell leads to Dingley Dell, everyone knows that. What I am not certain if anyone knows just exactly what a Dingley Dell is.
• Knob Cone Road, Boylston, MA – I’m thinking but I just can’t come up with anything less than X-​rated.
• Muggett Hill Road, Charlton, MA – I am not sure what a Muggett is. I did a search on Dic​tion​ary​.com, all I got was “Did you mean Nuggett?” I know there is a bird called a mullet, and there is a hair “style” to use the term loosely, called a mullet, but it is definitely muggett.
• Baptist Common Road, Templeton, MA – Now I don’t know a whole lot about the religious history of Templeton, but it does strike me as odd that Baptist Common Road is not near the town common but rather on the outskirts of the center of Templeton, where the other denominations are fairly represented. I’m just saying…
• Little Rest Road, Warren, MA – And finally there is Little Rest Road. I can only assume that at one time there were many very industrious people who lived on this road and there was “little rest” in their days. If it were a newer road, which it isn’t, I would assume there is little rest on Little Rest because of its proximity to the Mass Pike. As one who lives within a stones throw of that artery, I can tell you there is little rest for the weary around here.

So there you go, some interesting local roads on which I have travelled. When I used to travel a lot more than I do now, and all over the eastern seaboard, I would see many more interesting names, but do you think I would have written them down? Of course not, after all when on has his dingley dell rung and his muggetts busted he is never quite the same.