Weekend Assignment: A Thousand Words
Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Friday, June 12, 2009
I'm determined to do this right – partly as penance for missing last week. I had a good excuse. I was out of town.
No matter where you live, the daily sights you take for granted are bound to seem exotic to someone who lives in very different surroundings. Describe your home town, city or whatever to that theoretical someone, entirely in words. You don't have to write the proverbial "thousand words," but do not post a photo to aid you in conveying a sense of what the place is like.
For the past quarter century I've called the North Texas city of Plano home. I've seen a lot of changes in those twenty-five years, but more on that later. You want to know about how this city got such a silly name. (Well, you're going to hear it anyway.)
There are a couple of conflicting stories as to why the original name for the town was rejected. What is agreed on is that in 1850 it was decided that the city needed an official post office. In order to have a post office, a town has to have a name. One story says that the suggestion was made to name the town after William Foreman, who housed the unofficial post office. Foreman turned it down. The town leaders then decided to honor the sitting president and applied for Fillmore. Here's where the stories diverge. One story says the Post Office wrote back, stating that a town couldn't be named after a president currently in office. Another story states that the town name was already taken. The story tracks converge with the town leaders looking across the fields of grain and deciding that Plano sure as heck sounded like the Spanish for “Plain.” The Post Office had no comment on the meaning of the word, but thought that Plano was a fine and dandy name for a community, and so it was decreed.
There are streets in town named Millard and Fillmore, but it wasn't until the Fillmore Pub opened up in downtown that we had any establishment named after the president – at least as far as I'm aware.
Plano has a reputation for good schools (the senior high schools always rank in the Newsweek top 1000) and expensive homes. We have some top-flight restaurants and high-falutin' stores (all on the ritzy west side of town), as well as an amazing city park system. One thing the city did right was to set aside land for parks and schools as developments were laid out. Not far from us is a chain of parks with wooded areas, an amphitheater, a recreation center, and a nature center. People around here call the nature center when a rattlesnake ends up somewhere it shouldn't. Oh, yes. This is Texas. We get critters.
One thing I like about the section of town where we live is that there are farms a five minute drive from here. Some of the few remaining urban horse stables around are in Plano and neighboring Parker. Out north by the community college is an organic dairy. Down the street to the west is a small working farm (the remains of a large cattle ranch) with cows, horses, and llamas. A few blocks to the south is the Heritage Farmstead Museum, which is home to a lovely Victorian house, a smithy, and other farm accouterments. The very cool thing about this place is that the last owner was a woman. She wore trousers and ran the ranch. I understand she was well-respected for her knowledge of animals and the ranching business. She died childless and left the last parcel of land with the house and a few outbuildings to the city for a museum.
And yet, we live solidly in suburbia. Our home was built in 1970 or so before the big housing boom hit town. Plano still had one high school, and when we moved here Lance Armstrong was attending middle school at the same school Chris would later attend. Chris had one of Armstrong's teachers – in the same classroom, and sat in the same spot, at least according to the teacher.
Famous people? Plano has had 'em. The far west side of town boasts expensive homes where some members of the Dallas Cowboys live. Kinda meh, really.
These days Plano is known for video games. Several start-ups have located in town. The University of Texas at Dallas is not technically in Dallas or in Plano, it's in Richardson very near the border of Plano. However, it's turning into a leading university in the fields of computer programming, nanotech research, and, yes, video game design. Chris is studying the latter.
We're also known for the number of corporate headquarters. EDS, Pepsico (including Frito-Lay), the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (no period after “Dr,” please), and a host of companies all have headquarters in the area. Closer to UTD are a few tech campuses and a chip fab plant or two.
So how's the weather here? Pardon me while I look outside. I'm not kidding. We have a saying here that if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait a few minutes. The summers are generally hot and humid, winter is changeable (90F one day, snow the next) and fall and spring tend to be changeable. While we don't live in tornado alley, we still get our share of bumpy weather. 120,000 people are still without power after a severe storm hit two days ago. Tonight there was more severe weather, but we just missed it. In fact, I'll post a picture in my next entry.
Highs this time of year tend to be in the mid 90s, and by July and August the afternoon temperatures will hover around the century mark – more often on the other side than not.
We have wind, too! I've heard tales that this area actually has more wind than Chicago, but we don't have it whipping in off of a freezing lake. It does come down straight from Canada sometimes in the winter, though, which is one reason we go from 90F one day to freezing the next – or sometimes in the same day – during the winter. The calm, warm days are not good for the air pollution. This year hasn't been bad so far in that department, but when it gets summer and the winds die down, we'll be in for some bad air days.
And that's about it for Plano – and my 1000 words!
Extra Credit: Summarize your description Twitter-style, in 140 characters or fewer.
Plano is not Spanis for "Plain." We're not stupid. But we have Dr Pepper. And beer.
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Comments are closed
Karen Funk Blocher said:
Excellent! I know a lot more about Plano than I did, despite having read previous entries by you that touched on the subject. Love the summary.
Date: 6/13/2009 1:58:22 AM
Date: 6/13/2009 1:58:22 AM
Karen Funk Blocher said:
Excellent! I know a lot more about Plano than I did, despite having read previous entries by you that touched on the subject. Love the summary.
Date: 6/13/2009 1:58:22 AM
Date: 6/13/2009 1:58:22 AM
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