tree lawns; was Re: Off and on

[Paul Johnston]

The use of "tree lawn" is a stereotype in our house; my wife is originally from the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland and later, Parma, OH, and she uses the term all the time.  I got in touch with DARE about the term and they sent me a map of their responses, which were heavily concentrated around NE OH generally.  When surveying my students, I found that St. Joseph, MI, and seemingly only St. Joe, also uses the word.
My native area has no word for the concept that I know.  But I grew up from 6-14 in Hinsdale, IL (and mowed lawns), and so I grew up with "parkway"--which confused everyone once I moved to Jersey.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 21, 2011, at 9:49 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: tree lawns; was Re: Off and on
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 8:54 PM, Barbara Need <bhneed at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is your wife from the suburbs south and west of Cleveland? That is my
>> term for these--and I learned English in that area.
>>
>
> My wife - BTW, also named "Barbara" - grew up in Kingston, a suburb of
> Wilkes-Barre, in NE PA, the home of "heynabonics."
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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