Just a semi-thought

This isn't going to be a significant post, so feel free to skip it. I don't think this material will be on the test, but I wanted to share it with no one, and I thought, "where can I share this with no one? THE INTERNET!" So there you go. And went.

I was driving around the house in which I grew up, on the streets, mind you, not just donuts on the lawn, and looking at the street signs. I have never been good with street names and I know my way around more by sight than by name so I guess that's why I never noticed this. My parents' house is a corner property. That, I noticed. But the street names are particularly strange. If you ever read the directions for a standardized test then you will see that there is a chart of accepted abbreviations for street names. You live on Mockingbird Lane? Use Ln. You live on Supreme Court? Use Ct. Electric Avenue? Ave. Sacred Circle? Cir. You know the drill -- St, Rd, Pl and like that. But I lived on a corner which had two streets which are probably not on that list. The street address is on Parkway West. Note, this isn't like Ocean Parkway where the "Parkway" can be abbreviated. The "parkway" is the first word. Sure, you can abbreviate "West" but that isn't the type of street. In the city, there is a Pkwy South, East and West (and a Central Pkwy) but none is a traditional abrreviatable street type.

The other street is Wilson Block. That's it. Not Wilson Block Road. Just Wilson Block. I asked my mom and she said that she couldn't think of another street that is just "______ Block." Can you? Maybe, but there can't be that many. So the poor kids on that street probably also had no way of abbreviating their address when pressured for time filling out the preliminary info before the SATs started.

So what's the point? Well, I could derive lots of lessons here but I guess the one that got me thinking is this idea that I was living on a bizarrely, unconventionally named corner. And yet I never thought twice about the names and how they are different from other street names. I was oblivious to something rare and unexpected. How many other similarly unique things surrounded me and I missed them? Did I take other crazy things for granted and not realize their true status? What else did I not see because I didn't know enough to look?

Probably lots. And that's a really significant realization.