We’re experiencing an unusually early springtime in the Mid-Atlantic, with temperatures more akin to May than March. I like warmer weather so that’s a wonderful development in my mind although my seasonal allergies tend to disagree. I’ve been able to hit the bike trails after work each evening aided by the switch to Daylight Saving Time a few days ago. That’s a good thing even though I’d prefer they’d just pick a time and stick with it.
This provided me with an opportunity to ponder spring-like place names, specifically towns designated spring or springs. I concede that “spring” in that context generally means a place where water bubbles from the earth rather than a particular season of the year. However I’m not going to let that dampen my springtime exuberance. It’s allowed me to go back through my notes and highlight a few of my earlier articles.
Peach Springs, Arizona
Recently I posted the tantalizingly-titled article, Radioactive. It focused on Radium Springs, New Mexico. Many people once believed that radiation exposure was healthful and that’s how the town found a name. It was an attractive selling-point. However, that’s not the spring I wanted to feature. Rather, it was a discussion in the comments dealing with Radiator Springs from the Pixar Studios movie Cars.
I wondered if Radiator Springs was a riff on Radium Springs. Not so! Reader “kzimman” noted. Visual clues in the movie pointed to Peach Springs, Arizona (map) instead: “All the writers did was substitute a car part for a fruit…” I love that quote from a loyal reader but I’m bummed by the lack of originality demonstrated by the screenwriters.
Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs (map) came up when I talked about Sports Facilities I Never Imagined. Why Coral Springs? Because that’s the location of a curling club. Curling is a sport that involves sliding a large stone across ice while players sweep brooms madly in its path to affect its trajectory. Most of us see it once ever four years at obscure hours during the Winter Olympics. That last sentence demonstrates my complete lack of understanding or appreciation of that fine sport. I attribute it to my Southern upbringing. However that’s not the point, namely it’s really strange to find a curling club in sub-tropical Florida.
Taking another tangent, I also featured a cricket ground in Climax, North Carolina in that same article. The best part happened when Weekend Roady read my article and actually visited that same cricket ground in person! It’s oddly gratifying when readers incorporate my silly articles into their travel plans. Keep doing that everyone and let me know what you find.
Double Springs, Alabama
Double Springs (map) serves as the seat of local government in Winston County, Alabama. Winston gained fame as the sole county in Alabama that refused to join the Confederacy during the Civil War (until forced to do so under duress). This article goes all the way back to the very earliest days of 12MC. You can tell because of its brevity. My posts seem to grow longer-and-longer as the years go by. Some readers might argue that this isn’t a positive trend.
I did the flip-side of this topic much later when I focused on Town Line, New York in Confederate Yankees. It bills itself as the “last” Confederate town even though it’s located hundreds of miles deep within Union territory.
Other Stuff
I got to the slim-pickings when I mention Giant Springs, Montana. It’s not a town, it’s an actual spring that I featured in Shortest River… or Not The Row River runs 201 feet (61 metres) between Giant Springs and the Missouri River. It’s not even the shortest river, just a really short. Move along. Not much to see here.
I’m also going to throw-in Silver Spring, Maryland (map) just because I feel like it. I’ve never featured it on 12MC as far as I know but I can use it to highlight a pet peeve. Hollywood movies and television shows featuring Washington, DC area locations often identify what they consider Silver Spring. Invariably it looks something like the California desert. DOES THIS LOOK LIKE THE CALIFORNIA DESERT? Thank you. Also, I guess I have a second pet peeve: That’s Silver Spring (singular). Everyone wants to stick an “s” onto the end it.
There are some fairly large Spring cities in the United States. Colorado Springs is probably the greatest with 400,000 residents. There are also three places named Springfield in the Top 250 largest cities, in Missouri, Massachusetts and Illinois. That’s my shout-out to The Simpsons, which I guess actually ties more closely to Portland, Oregon than to any of the Springfields.
I’m sure someone is going to want to mention Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia so let’s get it over with. It’s not springtime there. The southern hemisphere is moving into autumn about now.
Totally Unrelated
I was excited when Street View on Google Maps came to Russia a few weeks ago. Call me disappointed. I wanted to see if it displaced either the farthest north or the farthest east Street View images. It should have been called Street View comes to Moscow and St. Petersburg. I want me some tundra!
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