PEOPLE MAKE A TOWN SPECIAL… NOT A NAME

BY: Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame

I live in St. Cloud, Florida but my offices are in nearby Kissimmee. Yankees call it Kiss'-a-me, but it's from American Indian origins and is correctly pronounced Ka-sim'-me. The old joke is it's Ka-sim'-ee during the day and Kiss'-a-me at night. Ba-dap-boop!

I'm surrounded by cities here in Florida with Indian origins ranging from Immolokee to Chiefton. One would understand the origin of these old townships and cities, but you have to marvel at the names they're giving the new "bergs" that spring up every day.

In and around my county of Osceola, another name of American Indian origin, we have areas that boast the names of Freedom, Celebration, Reunion, Harmony and Liberty. And then there is the list of oldie but goodies like Yeehaw Junction, Lokosee, Narcoossee and Holopaw.

What's in a name anyway? What would possess someone to name their township Celebration? Answer: it is part of the whole Disney thing and they only want to accentuate the positive. I'm game. Cost a couple of truckloads of cash to live there, but, hey, let's celebrate by spending tons of money.

Many of the older towns like the one I hail from in South Carolina are made up of folks that have been there for years. When I lived in Lexington back in the eighties, it was not uncommon for me to miss dial a number and I would end up talking to the person who answered for 15 minutes. Small towns are like that.

Pickup trucks used to outnumber cars in Lexington. They still do in St. Cloud, Florida. In Lexington, if you missed church on Sunday, people would call to see if you were sick.

People in small towns rarely use a turn signal; heck, everybody knows where you're headed anyway. People wish you a happy birthday because newspaper columnists like Daisy Harman of the Lexington Chronicle (one of the papers where this column appears) make it a point to let the community know when you arrived into this world. To her credit, she's kind enough to leave off the year unless you're hitting a record like age 100.

In St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, we recently sang Happy Birthday at Mass for Charlie Barcio, who still shows up every Sunday as he has for most of his 104 years here on earth. They do that kind of stuff in small towns.

You could wreck your car five miles out of town and word will get back before you do. Till this day, I remember getting mail in Lexington, SC addressed simply to Michael Aun, Lexington, SC. The post office delivered it on time.

Growing up on South Lake Drive in Lexington, you could play a nine inning game in the streets. The only time you'd stop is to let a car pull in to a driveway to watch the game. Not anymore.

You could leave your car keys in the car. Nobody messed with it. Not anymore. You knew who to thank when an anonymous bag of sweet corn or tomatoes was left it your back door. Not anymore.

Even ugly girls entered the Lexington County Peach Festival Beauty Padgett. Not anymore. The city council used to meet at Hite's Restaurant. Not anymore.

Your insurance agent added riders to your policy over the phone and got around to billing you whenever. You never had to send birth announcements; everybody knew the kid was coming and most knew what you were having and what you were going to name it.

When you want to find someone who wasn't home, you could go to the A&W or Dairy Queen or the feed store. That's where they would hang out. You know you live in a small town when the teacher calls you by your older brother's name because she just had him a year ago. Worse yet, they call you by your father or mother's name because they taught them too.

You can see the stars in the sky in a small town… even the little ones who live there because it's the people that are important, not the town. People make a town special, not a name like Celebration or Reunion or Harmony. It's nice to have some harmony in a small town, but you don't acquire it by naming it that.