In Oysterville

     In the early 1970s, many of the streets and roads and avenues and lanes on the peninsula were given new names.  The east/west streets were numbered; the north/south streets were lettered.  It was supposed to make it easier for emergency vehicles.
     I wasn’t living here then, but I remember how incensed my mother was about it.  “Just imagine getting rid of those sweet, old-fashioned names that really mean something!” she fumed.
     Of course, there was a hearing about it and, of course, mom went.  “How can you discount our history like that?  How can you just eliminate names like ‘Huckleberry Lane’ or ‘Joe Johns Road’ or ‘Ridge Avenue’?” she asked.  “I lived and worked in San Francisco for many years and the streets there still have their historic names.  The ambulances and fire trucks find their way.  Are you saying that our firemen and ambulance drivers aren’t as smart as those in a city as big as San Francisco?”
     It must have been a point well taken.  The street names in the National Historic District of Oysterville were retained as were a sprinkling of others throughout the peninsula.  We still have Bay Avenue and Cranberry Road and Pioneer Road, for instance.  And I thought things might be taking a turn for the better when 10^th Street in Long Beach was recently re-named ‘Sid Snyder Drive.’
     But each time I drive out toward the beach to visit friends on ‘V’ Street, I give a little involuntary shudder.  I want to shout “It’s Skating Lake Road you dolts!!!”  But who would I shout to?  More than one person has asked me in recent years if there really is a lake out there and why in the world it is called ‘Skating Lake.’  Mom’s point exactly.
     A lot of our history was eliminated when those names were changed.  Several generations have grown up with no knowledge of Skating Lake – not even through the reference of a street name.  They haven’t had the opportunity to ask and then to listen to their elders reminisce about the evening bonfires around the frozen lake, the skating parties, the fun.  It just doesn’t come up much.  Why would it?  ‘V Street’ doesn’t conjure up many old memories…