Somewhere in deepest Illinois, sort of left of Chicago, there is a village of some 280 souls (down from 300, apparently) called McNabb. I have to confess, I do love their water tank. They even have a website. It's mostly concerned with sewage and stuff, which seems about right.
I'll go there one of the days, you mark my words. I'll probably be wearing a 'Hello, Illinois, my name is McNabb' t-shirt. There's a much slighter chance I'll go incognito.
It's nestled deep in a huge patchwork quilt of squared-off fields and right angled roads. On Google Earth it looks flat and dull and utterly boring. I hope to God it's not. I hope it's a mad and nutty place filled with joy and carousing, anarchy bubbling under and a constant middle finger raised to the world around, most of which seems to consist of squares of ploughed tillage.
Don't even ask me how I found it. I don't even know myself. But I now have a new Twitter icon which I am deeply delighted with. And if ever there were a place to open 'McNabb Books', this would be The One...
3 comments:
Soooo funny!
I, too, share my surname with a dot on the map, and I've had a rather intimate connection with it all my life. I grew up only 3 minutes outside its border. My paternal ancestors settled that rural paradise about 200 years ago, give or take some decades. The "township(?)" of Cornatzer boasts a Cornatzer Road, Cornatzer Elementary School, and a similarly named firehouse. As is per the usual in Small Town, USA, everybody knows everybody else's business. But I wouldn't trade living out my childhood in that quiet, predictable place for ANYTHING. In truth, I fantasize about the day I'll move back.
Cheers!
I don't even know if there are any McNabbs still in McNabb or how a wandering McNabb came to settle here - if that is, indeed, why McNabb is called McNabb. But it must be pretty funky to have a physical connection to your 'nameplace'!!!
"Baseball" is an official category in the village board meeting's minutes. That's delightful.
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