When did this happen? The Road!?

[Tom]

Some time ago, I guess it was in the early 1980's, I remember a road here, called James Turner Butler Blvd., gained the nickname, JTB.  That bothered me a little.  I'm always bothered by people short-cutting names.  I like nicknames, but when Allison becomes Al or Thomas becomes "T", or Ashton becomes Ash, I think of the frustrations of the parents who who went through such a stressful time trying to come up with a name only to have its guts wrenched out.

This particular road, an expressway from I-95 to the Beach was actually named for someone.  That's really cool, to have a road named for you.  When it was referred to as  JT Butler, I didn't mind so much, but then it lost all of its personal attributes by becoming JTB.   Somewhere in the 1990's, JTB Blvd became "The JTB".  Now, where did that come from?

In the first ten years of this century, I've noticed that a lot of roads, even those with numbers, have become "The something".   I-95 is a well traveled thoroughfare from the uppermost northeast to South Florida. It replaced US-1 in importance, though US-1 is still important to natives of Florida.  But, it was always I-95.  Now I hear it called "The ninety-five".  What the heck is that?   "The ninety-five".   Give me a break!  It is now a road that runs parallel to The One.  If you want to go to Orlando, you turn right, off of The ninety-five onto The four.  If you go far enough west, you can turn right on The Seventy-five until you get to The Ten and then another right will take you back to The Ninety-five.  The Three-oh-one connects the middle ground and The Two hundred and the The sixteen break up the in-between.

What's with the need to put "the" in front of a name?  I just don't understand.  It seems to me that it is more of that foreign colloquialism that comes from the"somewhere else" and permeates the "here".  Is it really a correct grammatical necessity to place a function word in front of the name of a person or a thing?   I can see "the" being put in front of the word, road.  Road, needs a function word to denote that it has been selected as specific road among many roads, but, "The ninety-five"?  Just how many Ninety-fives are there?

I was reading a blog, written by an acquaintance of mine, about a four-day vacation trip that he took.  He is from California, or is that The California?; and doesn't seem to have any trouble with identifying his roads with the addendum of "the".

They, he and his wife, got on the The Five (off and on several times, I might add) and then on to The Ninety-nine.  Then they traveled The One-Ninety-eight, The Two-forty-five, The one-eighty, The One-ninety-eight, The Forty-one, The US-101, The Two-forty-six and then the 198 to the 41 and down to the 101; taking the 101 down, through some more very beautiful country to the 405.

My head is buzzing.

Is this really necessary?  Perhaps I'll take the time, sometime, to bring up the use of "again".  Or, maybe we could talk about, "at the end of the day", or "that being said".  "So" might make a good subject, as in, "so caught".  Is there such a thing as overly caught, or slightly caught?  Being so pregnant would conjure up a question of what one would be if one weren't.

Well, I just wanted to get that off of my chest.  It doesn't matter, I guess.

Signed, The Tom, boots on the ground just off of the one-fifteen in The Florida, just south of The Georgia.   Watching my pines grow.  :-\

[beenthere]

Well said Tom.  8)

[iffy]

bored? :D

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Sure your not Andy Rooney's brother?

[DouginUtah]

When I saw the title I thought you were going to talk about Cormac McCarthy's book, "The Road".  ;D

It was made into a movie of the same name but I never saw it listed at any theater here. I would have liked to see it to compare it to the book. Did anyone here see it?

[Texas Ranger]

I know the road I leave on, the TE,  The Edge.

[SwampDonkey]

Everyone calls it the ninety-five up here. It even hooks up from Houlton, Maine with the 4-lane ninety-five in New Brunswick into Woodstock, where it joins Route 2, 4-lane. So many darn roads you'd think you arrived in Montreal, but landed in a small town of about 8000. Can't direct you out of this place fast enough. :D

[Holmes]

Tom  thats The 10-4   Holmes

[Tom]

Doug,
I happened upon the movie, The Road, by happenstance, on cable television awhile back.  Not knowing that it was supposed to be an acclaimed film, I didn't pay it much attention. I especially didn't like the "realism" of the goriness, and felt ho-hum with the ending.  It seemed to me that the story had been left intentionally unfinished to allow for a sequel.  I felt it was unremarkable and probably would not go out of my way to watch a sequel, even if there were a book.

Typical of most post apocalyptic stories, the film was more about smoke, broken buildings, wrecked vehicles, dirty faces, torn shirts and errant behavior, than it was about a true story-line that would draw you into the tale.

Books have the salvation of allowing you to make up your own scenes, so I'll not be critical of the story until I've read the book.  The book may be good if the author dips my brushes in the right colors.  Like so many films, my idea of what is going on would be different than the almost comical shock value of the repeated gory scenes and intimations, done for visceral effects such as used in the many films on Dracula.  That kind of stuff  has never appealed to me.  I don't like someone scaring me for the sake of my being scared.  It's like someone stepping out of a closet of a haunted house and yelling "boo!", or picking their nose in love scene.

Scary, to me, is when Friday escapes the cannibals in Defoe's, Robinson Crusoe, or Ben Gunn ("Chic" Sale) drops to the trail in front of an escaping Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) in the 1934 film of Robert Louis Stevenson's, Treasure Island.  It scared me too when I sat through the murder scene of Huckleberry Finn, when his father was killed on the boat.  That really scared me reading the book.

When a movie resorts to showing an unborn human fetus being roasted over a fire by post-apocalyptic cannibals, I just find that sickening.   Perhaps I could handle it in a book where I could make my own picture, but even there, I would probably put the book down.

[Papa1stuff]

I worked for a paving company that paved 95 in Houlton Maine ,we paved around the clock ,two 12 hr shifts,Wow that was a long time ago :D

[CHARLIE]

So, what are you saying Tom?  If I was in Florida and some Yankee transplant was giving me directions where I-95 intersects with State Road 95 that intersects with County road 95, He would tell me to take The 95 until I came to The 95 and take that until I came to The 95 and there I'll be.  That's exactly why those people need to eat grits. Their brains have gone adled from Lackagrits.  Sheesh!

[SwampDonkey]

Here in the east and Maritimes (we are east to, but most people thing Ontario-Quebec is east) the Route 2 highway is the Trans Canada highway, in the west they call it the Kings Highway.  ;)

[thecfarm]

I don't think anyone that don't eat grits call I-95,the 95 or add the to 2-95 either. I have never heard of the Route 2 either. Heard of Route 2 a few times. Probaly if some Yankee transplant did add "the" to a road probably got it from some flat lander that eat grits.  ;D I 'm no expert but do talk to alot of Yankees that don't eat grits and I don't remember "the"being added to Route numbers or major highways.Up here in Yankee land,not many major highways. I live off from Chesterville Ridge Road. If someone wants to know here I live I would say,I live off from the Chesterville Ridge Road,that runs into the Dutch Gap Road.But I would never say off the Route 17.I would say Route 17.

[scgargoyle]

Here in southern Michigan Florida, we get folks from all over, so I've heard that kind of reference to a road before. It seems much more common than it used to. I'm not sure where it's from- midwest? Canada? I don't ever remember hearing it in my native CT. Another one I never heard before I moved here is "That house needs painted." instead of, "That house needs to be painted." Where did that one come from? It's fingernails-on-chalkboard to my ears. You hear it a lot around here.

[Tom]

A house needing painted would scratch my ears too.  Actually, I've never seen a Painted.  Who knows, it might be something I could use too.

[DR Buck]

Tom,

You need to get a hobby.   Ever thought about doing any sawmilling?     ;D

[Tom]

Yes, I considered it once, but "doing" lunch got in the way.

[Raider Bill]

I think it started out in Comifornia.

I have a pair of friends that say it that way the 4 the 95 the blah...........

[scgargoyle]

Yeah, Tom- That wood needs milled. Then you can load it on a truck so they can haul it up the 95........

[SwampDonkey]

Maybe it's just that "the" in front is good grammar, as it's inanimate. Like saying Tom, Dick and Harry met me at "the" restaurant and we got there via "the" 95 (or "the" I-95 if you wish). ;)

[John Mc]

Growing up in NW Ohio, I noticed some of the old-timers referred to some roads that way, but not all of them: it was "the Huffman Road", but just "Eagleville Road". I asked one old timer about this. He said he called it "the Huffman Road" because that's what his father always called it. He thought about it a minute then said, "you know, in my dad's day, the Huffmans lived on that road. They may have even made the original road. The only reason to be on that road was to go to their house. It was 'the Huffman's road'. I guess the 's got dropped somewhere along the way.

There was only one route number that he referred to that way: "the 199". He told me this probably came about when it was relocated. People referred to "the old 199" and "the new 199". Eventually, the official new name for "the old 199" caught on (Route 23), and "the new 199" didn't seem so new anymore, so the new got dropped, but a few of the old-timers still called it "the" 199.

John Mc

[Left Coast Chris]

Tom,  not sure there is a definitive answer here but here is a theory..... (kind of like the Big Bang) 

Out here, I usually only hear "the" in front of the route designation from Southern Californians or those from the Bay Area (San Francisco).   They spend hours on clogged freeways and experience alot of anxiety.  Those that do not experience anxiety use their electronics or have taken up smoking.  Eventually, they retire and get away from it all and move up where I live (far north Ca).

The theory is that they spend so much time on the freeway they personalize it.  They think of it as an entity.  Something alive or with a personality........... they might visualize ....... "wounder how the 680 is today"  and make a decision to chose that over other alternative routes.    So.....  if I have a particular sawmill issue I might tell my wife that Im going on to the FF and sending a PM to "The FloridaTom".   Not just a person but more like an institution.   

In college one of my team mates on the track team was a shot putter. I did discus and hammer.   His name was (is) Don Hoff.   When he made it to the nationals and became an all-american the local news paper chose to call him  "The Burley Don Hoff".    They institutionalized him in effect.

Is this something trendy people do?  Only those that view routes as something alive or as an institution?    Just an observation. 

[Tom]

In my school, "the" road is proper.   I-95 is the name of the road.  Kinda like The Canadian is Swamp Donkey.  Perhaps the swamp donkey would denote which animal , but the Swamp Donkey doesn't make much sense to me, whether there is one of them, or a hundred.  :-\

[Mooseherder]

I used to know of a place called "The Swamp Fox".
It was a Bar. ;D