tree lawns; was Re: Off and on

[Paul Johnston]

A few people in Michigan (Kalamazoo, Lansing) say "berm" for this.  Otherwise, I haven't heard any other terms besides "tree lawn" and "parkway".  As I say, in New Jersey, there was no term, though my neighborhood had sidewalks, and so, there was a tree lawn/parkway/berm.  Mowing lawns in Morristown, NJ took some skill, because of the hill our house was built on, and everyone did their own, so I was out of work anyhow.  The tree lawn (or whatever) was the only flat bit on the whole property.

My wife says that the trees planted in this strip belonged to the city in Cleveland, though you had to take care of them.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 22, 2011, at 1:16 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> 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 11:49 PM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
>> "parkway"
>
> I know that one from growing up in Saint Louis. For some reason, I
> still remember the name of the neighborhood grocerystore, the "Parkway
> Superette," always reffed as the "Superette." Possibly because the
> "Parkway" part was just weird. Like "Tree Lawn Superette" or
> something.
>
> BTW, is this feature considered to be worthy of a name in most places?
> As a child, I had to ask to find out what a "parkway" was. I've lived
> in lots of places that had tree lawns - Los angeles, Davis,
> Sacramento, Boston, and here and there - without becoming aware of any
> other local names for this thing. "Parkway" is, for me, normally a
> street with the left lane(s) and the right lane(s) separated by an
> actual park, as Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, or even by merely a
> strip of grass, as lots of other streets in Boston and elsewhere.
> Indeed, even in StL, that's by far the more-common meaning of
> "parkway" in the wild" "Left onto [Name] Street. Can't miss it. It's
> the parkway."
>
> --
> -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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