I saw an article the other day about how a town changed the name of a street because the street name was causing problems for the residents. Deliveries were not being made, and there were numerous indecent exposures going on at all times of day. No, don't worry, we at Homes for Heroes have not run into any problems. So that must have you asking yourselves, how could a street name cause that much grief? Is it a new road? Nope. That would be too easy. Such as "Ruby Tuesday Dr." named after one of the Rolling Stones songs. But in that case the major issues would be sign stealing or a mob of people waiting to take a picture next to the sign.
Something I should clarify. This street inhabits a portion of ground in an English speaking country. We have all seen the web photos of some tourist in front of a non-english speaking country sign that is funny if taken in English. This instance does not fit that category. The street sign is in plain english. So again, you should be either very frustrated and yelling, just get to it, or preferably, you should be asking yourself what in tarnations would cause the residents of a street to petition the city council to have the street renamed, wiping out hundreds of years of history?
Well you could live on Butt Hole Road. Yup. Delivery services don't believe the address so they just throw your packages to the undeliverable pile. Order a pizza for delivery, you get hung up on when they ask for your address. Some mornings as you head to your car, you might find several people mooning for a shot next to the notorious sign. Mmm, and just after breakfast. Think of the kids that get in trouble with their teacher. "Young Master Tom, can you tell me your address?" "Why yes, Miss Turing. It is 14 Butt Hole Road." "To the office with you, I'll not have any of that language in my classroom!!"
It might seem charming at first.....
Butt Hole Road is now Archer Way. I keep trying to come up with something equally sinister for Archer Way as Butt Hole but I get squat. I suppose some would think living on Butt Hole Road is better than living in Crapstone, England or in Penistone (pronounced PENNUS tun). But any of those on an employment application could put you right into the circular file. Titty Ho, England however, might get a second glance, depending on which gender is reviewing your resume. I did some research into Butt Hole Road and first found something on Webster.com. It provides the following definition for the word butt.
butt
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French but, bout, from Old Occitan
bota, from Late Latin buttis
Date:
14th century
1: a large cask especially for wine, beer, or water 2: any of various
units of liquid capacity ; especially : a measure equal to 108 imperial
gallons (491 liters)
So could that be the simple answer? The road served as a watering hole for the village of Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England all those centuries ago? A little more digging and I find something equally as plausible. Around the same time in the 1300's a butt was also an embankment to catch arrows and "missles" as they flew at you. A road traveling through this embankment could very easily have been called the butt hole. The word Butt was not associated with our portable seat cushion until well after the road was named. An old 14th century battle manual also mentions that when learning to shoot your bow and arrow you should start by "shooting at the butt". Once you can hit the target you can then move to harder targets in the field. They also give hints on how to shoot the arrows from between your legs. I apologize for those last several sentences were really hard to get through without conjuring up all sorts of puns.
So modern mans use of the English language has changed over history and when you are looking to purchase a home there are two major things you need to take away from this article.
Most important is to get a hold of Homes for Heroes. They will save you a good amount of money when purchasing as well as selling a home.
And almost as equally important, is pay attention to the address. You may love the house, as I am sure all the inhabitants of Butt Hole Road did, but they found out with much frustration that living on historic Butt Hole Road is a lonely place. And you will be proud of how I refrained from the several hundred puns I could have used.
I am running out of space. My boss has limited me to 15 inches of text, not including pictures. But I did want to tell you about a story I heard today regarding the valiant and brave Marines of 2/5 in Afghanistan. I guess it will
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