RA>Up north we have a couple of bridges like that.  One is the old bridge
  >and the other the new bridge.  About ten-fifteen years ago, they tore
  >down the old bridge and replaced it, so the old bridge is about fifty
  >years newer than the new bridge.  However, a couple of years ago they
  >widened the new bridge to four lanes by adding a second two-lane bridge
  >next to the original new bridge, so part of the new bridge really is new
  >and part of it really is old.  Hmmm.  I really don't think a flatlander
  >could figure out how to get across the river there at all.  :>
Of course, here in South Jersey (which is all flat, by the way), we have
our own tales of old/new confusion.  When the locals talk about The
King's Highway, they mean the old road that used to be called The King's
Highway, that starts just outside Salem, and that already existed as a
muddy trail by 1700. The problem is: the road that's *named* the King's
Highway starts 15 miles north of here, in Woodstown, and doesn't join
the road everyone *calls* the Kings Highway for another ten miles,
until it reaches Swedesboro.  So we have close to 25 miles of road that
everyone except the mapmakers calls the King's Highway; and close to
ten miles that is recorded on the maps as The King's Highway, but that
nobody calls that.
Then, because Quakers were so involved in road building in the 18th and
19th centuries, so many of our roads here are named for point of
origin/point of exit.  Thus we have the Swedesboro/Harrisonville Road
between Swedesboro and Harrisonville, that becomes the
Harrisonville/Williamstown Road as it enters Harrisonville.   Roads like
this tend to be shortened to only half their names.  Thus the
Swedesboro/Harrisonville road becomes the Swedesboro Road.  And, since
there's more than one road entering Swedesboro that has Swedesboro as
its name, there is more than one road that gets *called* the Swedesboro
Road.  However, most people solve the problem by naming the road for
the next major town down.  Thus, the Swedesboro/Harrisonvillle Road is
usually called The Swedesboro Road in Harrisonvillle, and is called The
Harrisonvillle Road in Swedesboro; but is apt to be called either at all
small towns in between.
And is also apt to be called either on the road signs.  The result:  I
usually don't give road names as part of my directions to people.  I
give local sights instead:  "Go to the white house with the long green
hedge; right after it is a road.  Make a right."
This drives city people crazy, however; and we're back to the old
city/country confusion in directions.  (grin)
  > SB> And there are probably city born and bred folks who don't even know
  > SB> what a gander is.
RA>Probably, although my mind has trouble handling the thought.  I remember
  >when I was a kid, we used to joke about city slickers who thought
  >chocolate milk came from brown cows.  What was so funny was that we
  >didn't really believe that anybody could be that ignorant.  I remember
  >reading not too many years ago about some city kids who didn't even know
  >that milk comes from cows and sometimes goats--all they'd ever seen was
  >the plastic jugs and paper cartons, and they had no idea how it got into
  >the containers.  I'm still not sure if somebody was pulling the public's
  >leg on that one.
I've had enough acquaintance with city bred youngsters to know that many
of the wee ones (the two to four year olds) really don't know milk comes
from cows.  I think just about all kids do know that by six or seven,
however.
There was the kid we took camping a couple of years ago.  It was her
first time outside on a really dark night (unlit by city street lights
and tall buildings).  She stood gazing up a a star filled sky.  "There
really are that many stars", she said in awe.  "I thought they were just
just making it up in the planetarium."
                        Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ Beauty is its own reward, being a form of peace.  Nichols
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
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