How to tell if you're an Arizona or Southern California local, using "the" for freeways


I've only lived three places in my life, Minnesota (where I grew up), California (where I lived in the '80s) and Arizona, where I am now, and where I always hope to be. So when I heard that it was unusual to add the word "the" to a freeway number, I was surprised. Then I put it to the test - sure enough, I found myself saying "take the 10", "take the 101" (both of which are freeways in Los Angeles and Phoenix) but when I thought of where I learned to drive, in Minneapolis, I found myself saying "take 35W".

This train of thought started for me just a couple of months ago, when I read an article that insisted that the use of "the" was strictly a Southern California thing. So I asked around here in Arizona. Everyone, and I mean everyone, I talked to includes the word "the". It seemed like a silly question to people I asked, but my friends are used to me asking silly questions.

So, apparently this is a Southern California and Arizona thing, using the word "the". I always do it, and I never heard myself doing it. So, if you're a local, you probably do, too. And people from elsewhere may look at you kinda funny.

Right now I'm curious about elsewhere. The article that I saw insisted that it was strictly a Southern California thing, but obviously it's not. I talked to my brother, who lives in the Bay area, and he says he hears people saying it with and without the "the".


1960s master freeway plan for the Phoenix, Arizona area.

A postcard showing Black Canyon Freeway in the 1960. I've always said "the Black Canyon Freeway", and if you do, then you're probably a local.

Construction of the 1-10 with the 303 freeway, Phoenix, Arizona. ADOT calls it Interstate 10 and Loop 303.

Image at the top of this post: The I-17 freeway under construction in 1961, Phoenix, Arizona. Also called the Black Canyon Freeway.
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please consider subscribing to History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

 Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more