Jason English
What’s Your Hometown’s Claim to Fame?
by Jason English - January 22, 2010 - 10:41 AM
bloghead_fridayhappyhour1.gif

Every Friday, I post a series of unrelated questions meant to spark conversation in the comments. Answer one, answer all, respond to someone else’s reply, whatever you want. Very casual. On to this week’s topics of discussion…

1. Well, it finally happened. Yesterday I mentioned to someone that I grew up in Denville, New Jersey, and she said, “Hey, didn’t a Jonas Brother just marry a girl from there?” I’m not used to people from other parts of the country knowing my hometown, but I wish they’d latch onto another big moment in Denville history.

Denville? Isn’t that where Professor Ray Richards tried to break the world record for days spent buried alive in 1933? If I remember correctly, he came up 20 days short of the 42-day record.

Or something about our cops and teachers regularly winning the lottery.

A famous resident? A significant historical event? A movie filmed there? A ridiculous nickname? What’s your hometown’s claim to fame?

2. I’ve sat through plenty of tests of the Emergency Broadcast System (“If this had been an actual emergency, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions.”) But I don’t remember the system ever telling me about an actual emergency. I’m sure it happens and I’m just not watching TV at the time, right? Have you ever witnessed the Emergency Broadcast System being used for something other than a required test?

baby-dog-MF
3. My daughter’s first proper noun was “Bailey” (our yellow lab, not the Party of Five character). Do you remember the first name you (or your kids) could say? Or any out of the ordinary word you picked up early in your verbal life?

Charlotte has since decided it’s easier to call Bailey “dog.” Hard to argue.

Have a great weekend!

[See all the previous Friday Happy Hour transcripts.]

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Comments (255)

  1. RE #1:

    I don’t think anyone knows of my hometown, Milpitas, CA. The only thing I can think of would be where Grant Show, from the original “Melrose Place” lived and graduated high school.

    For the city I am now, it’s known for being “The Gateway to Yosemite”, Merced, CA. Actually, it’s just the main town on the central entrance route, there are north and south ones also with other big cities along them.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 1-22-2010 at 10:47 am

  2. I was born and raised in Houston, so there’s a hometown that’s famous for pretty much everything. Narrowing it down, though, I went to the same high school as Beyonce.

    captcha: orations administration

    posted by Elissa on 1-22-2010 at 10:49 am

  3. 1. My town was the birthplace of poet Sam Walter Foss. You haven’t heard of him? Neither has anyone else (me included until I moved here).

    2. I’ve see the EBS used to warn of approaching nor’easters and slick road conditions every few winters.

    3. My son first said “Shadow,” which was the name of one of our cats. Oddly, she’s the cat who dislikes and avoids him the most but he knew her name before he knew those of the 3 cats who actually like (or at least tolerate) him.

    posted by Mother Chat on 1-22-2010 at 10:50 am

  4. RE #2:

    Yes, I have seen the Emergency Broadcast system in actual action when it comes to storms, flash floods etc. Sometimes the “information, news or instructions” is just text put on the screen, other times it’s text on the screen with a guy also reading it to you.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 1-22-2010 at 10:50 am

  5. Jackson, MI. Birthplace of the Repuclican Party. Also was home to the largest walled prison in the world, although that part of the prison was shut down. Some locals call Jackson, Prison Town.

    posted by Ray Pratt on 1-22-2010 at 10:50 am

  6. Pueblo, Colorado- “Home of the Heroes” 4 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients have been born in Pueblo. We are also known for having the most alcohol consumed in one 24 hour period in one establishment (as of the late 70′s anyhow…)

    posted by Stephanie on 1-22-2010 at 10:51 am

  7. 2) I heard the Emergency Broadcast system in action back in college. It was on the radio, and it informed us that a tornado had touched down on campus and that we ought to go to the basement. We tried to use our hours stuck down there to get out of a test the next day, but no such luck.

    3) My brother learned the word “trapezoid” from our uncle at a very young age and quickly became enchanted with it.

    posted by loripop on 1-22-2010 at 10:56 am

  8. 1. My hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky is known for being the birthplace of one Johnny Depp–a fact that the local Walmart never fails to proclaim every time a new movie of his comes out on DVD.

    We’re also the self-proclaimed barbecue capital of the world, bringing in 3 million folks for our annual barbecue festival.

    2. I see it all the time for tornado warnings. Has anyone else notice that the creepiness factor has gone up tenfold since they started using a robot voice instead of a real person?

    3. My best friend’s first word–not first proper noun, but first WORD–was McDonald’s. Sigh.

    *captcha: chickpea of. Chickpea of what!?

    posted by Lindsaur on 1-22-2010 at 10:58 am

  9. 1. My hometown is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. More positive claim to fames would include Harley Davidson and the Miller Brewing Company. Not so great claim to fames would be Jeffrey Dahmer and the fact that Milwaukee remains one of the most racially segregated cities in the nation.

    2. I cannot recall ever seeing the EBS being used. Maybe I never have the tv on at the right time. Didn’t hear the EBS when we got about 17 inches of snow in one day last month and a state snow emergency was declared.

    3. Early in life I picked up the word ‘Nape Nuts’ when I wanted some grape nuts cereal. I also hated ‘Ho Ho’ (Santa) as a kid because he was so scary to me.

    posted by Emma on 1-22-2010 at 10:58 am

  10. My hometown is Youngstown, Ohio.

    You know your town is screwed when Bruce Springsteen writes a song about it.

    posted by Kevin on 1-22-2010 at 11:01 am

  11. 1. I didn’t grow up there, but the town where I currently live, Wilmington Ohio, is supposedly the birthplace of the banana split. (There’s even an annual Banana Split Festival!)

    This fact is far less depressing than the source of its current notoriety, which is that 8000 jobs disappeared from town when an air freight company closed down operations there. (That was recently on 60 Minutes and Rachael Ray.) I’d rather think about the ice cream.

    posted by Kate on 1-22-2010 at 11:01 am

  12. 2. I live in Pittsburgh, and back when the remnants of Hurricane Ivan came through I heard the Emergency Broadcasting in full effect. Due to crazy flooding, it was explaining what to do when you encounter a flooded area.

    Also, have heard it one time when a tornado was headed our way. It always freaks me out when I hear the first sounds indicating an emergency broadcast, but after I hear that it’s just a test I feel much better. lol

    posted by Molly on 1-22-2010 at 11:02 am

  13. 1. Lubbock TX- home of Buddy Holly and unfortunately lately, Mike Leach
    3. My son’s first word was eight. We should have known then that math and numbers was his thing!

    posted by Hermoine on 1-22-2010 at 11:05 am

  14. 1. I graduated from the same high school as Bob Dylan. There’s plenty of Dylan-related places around town.

    2. Living in the midwest, I’ve seen (and heard on the radio) the EBS used quite a number of times in the summer months to let listeners know of the impending tornadic doom.

    posted by Chia on 1-22-2010 at 11:05 am

  15. My hometown, Hastings, Nebraska, is the birthplace of Kool-Aid. Every August there is a “Kool-Aid Days” festival, featuring the World’s Largest Kool-Aid Stand. Buy your souvenir cup for $4, and drink all the Kool-Aid you can stand.

    My son’s first name was the dog, Coda. Though he couldn’t get the “d” sound, so it sounded like “Coha”. He’s got it now, though…tells Coda to go away.

    posted by Jonathan on 1-22-2010 at 11:06 am

  16. I’m from Brampton, Ontario, Canada…most of the Police Academy movies were filmed there…and Tommy Boy!
    Also, Lennox Lewis lives here…

    posted by Amitcdn on 1-22-2010 at 11:07 am

  17. I was born in Whittier, California. I still have an old Chamber of Commerce-issued street map that pointed out various sites associated with Richard Nixon’s life. Yikes.

    posted by VM on 1-22-2010 at 11:07 am

  18. 1. Deer Park, Texas: Home to New York Yankees and former Houston Astros pitcher Andy Pettite.

    2. I live on the coast near Houston (Not the pretty coast – the part where the refineries set up and oil tankers track through.) We have been through several Tropical Storm and Hurricane warnings.

    3. Our older son (2 years old) refuses to call our younger son (6 months old) by name. He will only call him ‘baby’.

    posted by Witty Nickname on 1-22-2010 at 11:07 am

  19. 1. I was born in Odessa TX and it’s most recent claim to fame is a high school football team there that is the subject of the book and movie Friday Night Lights. My mom, dad and most of my aunts and uncles graduated from Permian High School which is the school that the story is about. I’m not sure about how the people of Odessa feel about the movie. I haven’t visited in years.

    2. I experience an real EBS a few times last summer. It was actually scary to have the announcement come on the TV. At first I thought it might be a test, but then someone started talking about tornado warnings in the area. Then the siren started going off outside. I had never heard the emergency siren before and it really freaked me out. My neighborhood was ok, but there was a tornado that touched down a few miles away.

    3. I don’t remember what my first word was, I will have to ask my mom. But I do know that I didn’t talk hardly at all until I was 2 years old. Not because I couldn’t, I just didn’t want to for some reason.

    posted by K on 1-22-2010 at 11:12 am

  20. 1) My sleepy, quiet hometown of Griffin, GA was the birthplace of the Doc Holiday, the dentist-turned-gunfighter famous for his fight at the O.K. Corral. Other little known facts about this otherwise-forgettable little town located ~50 miles south of Atlanta include that it just missed becoming the state capital. A popular rail line was slated to either pass through Griffin or Marthasville, and Marthasville won out, later being renamed to Atlanta.

    posted by Chad on 1-22-2010 at 11:12 am

  21. My hometown is known for two things: One, something called the poultry fest. I’ve never gone, but apparently they even have a chicken chariot race (!). Similarly, it was home to one of the worst PCB groundwater disasters, which was discovered when I was about 4 or 5.

    The first time I’d heard the EBS actually used for something was when I was driving to Santa Fe, in the middle of illinois. It was used to warn us of tornadoes – which has now become a recurring theme on *every* long driving trip. (It’s like tornado chasing, except backwards.)

    I spoke really early, and read really early, and apparently seriously multisyllable words coming out of the mouth of a toddler freaks people out.

    posted by Anaximander on 1-22-2010 at 11:14 am

  22. 1. My hometown of Williamsport, PA is actually known for a bunch of different things. The most well known is the fact that it is the home of Little League Baseball and plays host to the Little League World Series every year.

    Also, back in the days when Williamsport was the “Lumber Capital of the World”, the town had more millionaires per-capita than anywhere else in the world.

    Finally, Williamsport is home to a few famous athletes like Gary Brown (former NFL running back) and Mike Mussina (former Yankees and Orioles pitcher).

    posted by Tom on 1-22-2010 at 11:15 am

  23. The claim to fame of my hometown of Sandviken, Sweden would be that Geena Davies spent a semester here as an exchange student!

    Another creepy fact is that 5,000 out 30,000 inhabitants work at the same steel company. One company town anyone?

    We’re also home to the best Bandy team in the world, SAIK, the men of steel!

    posted by Magnus on 1-22-2010 at 11:17 am

  24. 1. Born in raised in Smyrna, TN, aka the hometown of Sam Davis, boy hero of the confederacy. We’re also semi-famous for having a mayor (J. Sam Ridley) who held office for 40 consecutive years. He finally stepped down after being convicted of conflict of interest (based on a lawsuit brought by my grandfather, actually). After he resigned, he was replaced by Knox Ridley, his identical twin brother. Can’t make that sort of stuff up.

    posted by Andrew on 1-22-2010 at 11:18 am

  25. Middletown, NJ – Kevin Smith movies, this seems to impress a lot of guys. Even more when I tell them I went to high school with Jason Mewes.

    posted by Rebecca on 1-22-2010 at 11:18 am

  26. 1) I graduated high school in Blue Earth MN- famous for the giant statue of the Jolly Green Giant

    2) I hear the emergency broadcast every summer- living in the upper midwest there are a lot of tornado’s

    recaptcha: Mrs surpluses

    posted by Suz on 1-22-2010 at 11:19 am

  27. Merrick, NY lays claim to many famous (and infamous) celebs. We’re the hometown of Debbie (now Deborah) Gibson, Ben and Jerry (of ice cream fame), and the never-to-be forgotten Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher.

    Merrick is also sometime home to Lindsay Lohan and Michael Kors.

    posted by Valerie on 1-22-2010 at 11:21 am

  28. I found out within the last several years that my hometown, Hastings, Nebraska, is where Kool-Aid got its start. In 1927, Edwin Perkins had a mail order business and removed the liquid from his Fruit Smack drink and called it Kool-Ade. He moved the production to Chicago in 1931 and the rest is history.

    posted by Mike on 1-22-2010 at 11:24 am

  29. 1. I am from a suburb about 15 miles west of Chicago. David Hasselhoff went to my highschool…it has always been our claim to fame.

    Also, Steve Dahl (radio personality) and James Young, aka J.Y., (gutarist from Styx) lives in my town.

    posted by Marie on 1-22-2010 at 11:24 am

  30. 1. I was born and raised in Fargo, ND. Yes, I’ve seen the movie. Yes, I know we talk like that.

    posted by Andrea on 1-22-2010 at 11:25 am

  31. 2. I have only heard the EBS used once and it was when a local teenage girl’s parents were murdered by her boyfriend and then the boyfriend and her ran off together. She was under age and he was suspect of kidnapping her so it was an Amber Alert. Made the message much more creepy!

    posted by Kelly on 1-22-2010 at 11:26 am

  32. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. Since other people mentioned high school: I went to HS with Zachary Quinto (of Heroes and Star Trek fame). He was 2 years younger, but I do actually remember him. Other alumni of my school include Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins quarterback) and Tom Savini (special effects guru and ‘Sex Machine’ in From Dusk Till Dawn). I also worked in the same bookstore in HS as author Michael Chabon (but not at the same time). Mr. Rogers was also a frequent customer and I met him several times as well.

    posted by Shawn on 1-22-2010 at 11:26 am

  33. I’m from the small town of Relay, Maryland. Not only is it home to the world’s longest stone arch rail-road bridge (the Thomas Viaduct), but it is also the birthplace of the Morse Code and the launching point for the the Tom Thumb, the world’s first steam powered locomotive engine.

    posted by Charlie on 1-22-2010 at 11:32 am

  34. I grew up in Stow, OH hometown of Larry Csonka formerly of the Miami Dolphins way back when.

    posted by Chris on 1-22-2010 at 11:33 am

  35. Norfolk, Nebraska:
    Johnny Carson grew up there.
    Hallmark Cards started in Norfolk, before moving to Kansas. I was originally “the Norfolk Post Car Company”.
    Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, sang the Grinch theme, also grew up in Norfolk.

    posted by Cat on 1-22-2010 at 11:33 am

  36. Actually, I saw the Emergency Broadcast System used quite a bit this week – with the rain here in CA, it told us who was being “washed away” next…

    posted by Beth on 1-22-2010 at 11:33 am

  37. My hometown of Staunton, VA, has two claims to fame. 1) It’s the home of the Statler Brothers, and 2) It was the origin of the City Manager style of city government.

    posted by Tim on 1-22-2010 at 11:37 am

  38. There’s not a lot of fame to claim in Clarksburg, WV. However, it was the birthplace of Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. More recently, it is also the hometown of Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher (his mom taught my high school chemistry class).

    posted by Sarah on 1-22-2010 at 11:39 am

  39. 1) I live in Jackson, Tenn., which is the birthplace of Carl Perkins, Jr. He wrote “Blue Suede Shoes” among other songs. We have the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame to honor the genre he perfected.

    2) The EBS is a common thing here, because we get tornadoes or at least close calls twice a year. Including yesterday. It’s hardly ever just a test.

    3) My mom said my first word was “doggie.” We had a cocker spaniel at the time, so there ya go.

    posted by Tracie on 1-22-2010 at 11:40 am

  40. Yesterday the EBS was used in LA for flash flood warnings. Many wooded areas that were hit with the earlier fires are not stable so there are major mud slides, etc.

    posted by Los Angeles Door Artist on 1-22-2010 at 11:41 am

  41. 1) Asuncion, Paraguay – John Grisham visited once to do research for a novel, three time winning IFFHS best goal keeper award winner Chilavert was born in a suburb of Asuncion, and yes for all you mental flossers Presidente Hayes is our hero.

    2)I live in Oklahoma so those are almost a weekly occurance during tornado season. I think when I lived in Tulsa there was actually one week where we had one appear every day.

    3) one of my first words was “damn” strange considering I lived in a Spanish speaking country and the only people I knew who spoke english were Baptist missionaries.

    posted by Megan on 1-22-2010 at 11:42 am

  42. 1. Marc Brown (author of the Arthur children’s book series), Billy Blanks (of TaeBo fame), Pat Monahan (lead singer of the band Train), Tom Ridge, and Ann B. Davis (Alice from the Brady Bunch) all were born or grew up in Erie, PA. Some still call it home.

    Erie was also host to a bizarre bank robbery in 2003 which resulted in a pizza delivery man dying when the homemade bomb strapped to his neck detonated. The event drew a lot of media attention from all over the US.

    3. I could only say a couple of words when I spotted those famous Golden Arches outside the car window and blurted out, “McDonalds!” My mom nearly drove off the road.

    posted by Strubisatoaster on 1-22-2010 at 11:42 am

  43. My first word was “that”. I’m hoping my daughter can come through with something more enlightening.

    posted by MC on 1-22-2010 at 11:43 am

  44. 1. Ron Howard was born in Duncan, OK. His mom was from there and she went home to be with her family when the baby was born. When his dad finished his stint in the service, they moved to California. Ron was about 18 months old. His grandmother passed away some time back and he has turned down all requests by the town to come for various events.

    3. First proper noun: Basie! I thought it was a generic word for music, apparently.

    posted by Karen Kaley on 1-22-2010 at 11:43 am

  45. 1) My hometown of San Mateo, CA is where television producer Merv Griffin and actor Keith Carradine were born. Also, though they’ve since moved to other nearby towns, it’s where YouTube and Electronic Arts were founded. I guess one day we’ll be considered the birthplace of internet video.

    2) A couple times I’ve seen the Emergency Broadcast System (or the Emergency Alert System as they call it these days) activated. It’s usually weather-related (thunderstorms and such), but I imagine that the weather we get to activate it here in Northern California would be considered no big deal in most parts of the country.

    posted by John Bejarano on 1-22-2010 at 11:49 am

  46. Not where I was *born*, but seeing how I’ve resided here for all but the 1st 3.5 years of my life…

    GREENSBORO NC : The ‘Woolworth’s Sit-In’..

    And the museum centered on honoring the event will finally be having its opening in a week (click my name for more details!)

    posted by Amy on 1-22-2010 at 11:50 am

  47. 1. Naples, Ny: Grape Pie Capital of the World!

    2. Heard the EBS when driving to a raquetball match and the planes flew into the twin towers.

    posted by Lizilla on 1-22-2010 at 11:57 am

  48. Niagara Falls, Canada.

    There’s a big hole in the ground that people come to see.

    posted by Amanda on 1-22-2010 at 11:58 am

  49. My hometown is Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech. Last night my four-year-old granddaughter proclaimed, \I’m not Chinese; I’m a Hokie!\

    posted by Melissa on 1-22-2010 at 11:59 am

  50. Hometown is Lewiston/Auburn, Maine (it’s pretty much one city anyways). Our claim to fame is it’s the hometown of Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey. And the town where Stephen King was hospitalized after he hot hit by a drunk driver a few years back.

    posted by Chris on 1-22-2010 at 12:03 pm

  51. My hometown — nothing. But nearby Ottawa, IL, was:
    1) the site of the first debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass
    2) the home of U.S. (formerly Ottawa) Silica, source of some of the purest silica sand in the world
    3) the town featured in the documentary \Radium Dial\. My grandmother worked there, but did not point her paintbrush in her mouth, so she survived.

    My first word? It was a full sentence, spawned by the scrap of newspaper I had just picked up and read. \Look, Mom, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E’.\ I was a late talker — and a very early reader.

    posted by lleachie on 1-22-2010 at 12:05 pm

  52. My hometown is Vandalia, OH – the “Crossroads of America.” Despite Indiana’s claims that they are the real Crossroads of America, Vandalia holds the title due to its location at the intersection of I-70 and I-75, two of the busiest freeways in the country.

    posted by Jon on 1-22-2010 at 12:08 pm

  53. Oh, yes, my current home town — Maryville MO, where Northwest Missouri State University currently has the National Championship winning Division II football team, AND the National Championship winning Division II cheerleaders.

    The inspirational writer Dale Carnegie (“How to win friends and influence people”), author Homer Croy (who?), and opera star from a former day Sarah Caldwell also hail from here.

    posted by lleachie on 1-22-2010 at 12:09 pm

  54. 1. Twelve Mile, Indiana (population around 200 or so) has two yearly events that make it well-known: The 4th of July “Little 500″ riding lawnmower race and the Living Christmas Pageant every winter.

    2. I’ve heard the EBS used for a variety of weather emergencies–tornadoes, ice storms, snow storms, etc.

    3. My first word was “hi,” but my brother’s was “Jack,” the name of the beagle we had at the time. That quickly changed to “Jack no no” because those two words accompanied the use of his name quite often.

    posted by Fruppi on 1-22-2010 at 12:10 pm

  55. 1) The only reason that my hometown, Wrentham, MA is on the map is because Scott Brown is from there and Helen Keller lived there for a while.

    NFL player Lofa Tatupu went to my (regional) high school and Matt Hasselback went to my (regional) middle school. I usually consider them from my hometown too.

    posted by Julia on 1-22-2010 at 12:10 pm

  56. My home town is Richmond, VA. So, there’s stuff like the Patrick Henry speech. There’s Edgar Allen Poe (despite Baltimore and Philly, Richmond’s where he is from and long worked.) Then there’s the whole capital of the confederacy and civil war thing (you might find that more infamous.) It’s the only American city with Class Five rapids in the heart of town.
    The band Gwar is from Richmond. I hung with them sometimes back when they were called Death Piggy.

    No, I’ve never heard an actual emergency. But I’ve never lived in an area prone to natural disasters and the godless commies never nuked us, so…
    Anyway, the public schools I attended were designated fallout shelters.
    Duck and cover, kiddies!

    posted by BassMan on 1-22-2010 at 12:15 pm

  57. montreal is famous for poutine! yummmm. and lots of famous francophones? and crazy winters. and the international jazz festival. and beautiful women i guess. low drinking age.

    posted by karina on 1-22-2010 at 12:20 pm

  58. 1) My hometown, Denison, Texas, is the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower and is where Cheslea “Sully” Sullenberger grew up and graduated high school. As a matter of fact, he was in my mother’s class and she was in band with him.

    Thomas V. Munson saved the European wine industry in the late 19th century.

    John Hillerman was born in Denison and George “Spanky” McFarland lived in Denison for a time.

    2) Several times, usually for Tornado Warnings.

    3) My oldest son’s first proper now was “Cody”, his cousin’s name. My middle son’s first was “Kyle”, my oldest son’s name. My youngest is just 9 months old, so no proper nouns yet.

    posted by Jeff on 1-22-2010 at 12:22 pm

  59. I’d like to give a shout out to Strawberry Point, Iowa, home of the world’s largest strawberry! Yes, it is fiberglass, and no, we don’t really have any real strawberries there anymore. Unless you count the ones sent from more tropical climates.

    recaptcha: Venus better. Venus better WHAT?!

    posted by Rebecca on 1-22-2010 at 12:23 pm

  60. 1. Hawkins, TX is the hometown of the model for the Aunt Jemima syrup bottle; ergo the self-bestowed “Pancake Capitol of Texas” moniker.

    2. The EBS sounds for flash floods and hail, but that’s about it.

    3. I can’t remember my boys’ first proper names said, but my daughter’s first was “Thomas” (her older brother).

    posted by AHI on 1-22-2010 at 12:23 pm

  61. Do you have an air popcorn popper? Do you have any “value” costed kitchen appliances? Look at the name on them. Chances are at least one of them bears the name “West Bend” on it. That’s my hometown. West Bend Wisconsin. West Bend manufactured popcorn poppers and other kitchen appliances and wares for decades. There is no longer a factory there and the name was sold to a bigger company a few years ago, but whenever you go into a department store there is a pretty good chance that at least one product on display will bear the “West Bend” name.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bend_Company

    posted by M Fryda on 1-22-2010 at 12:25 pm

  62. hometown is Miami…aside from anything you’ve ever seen or heard about Miami we are also home to Burger king!

    posted by dre on 1-22-2010 at 12:27 pm

  63. 1.) Born and raised in Normal, Illinois, which I guess is famous for its name? It’s also where State Farm originated, Dr. Henry Blake of M*A*S*H is from, and where the Beer Nuts factory is located. Among other things.

    2.) Like others, as a Midwesterner, I’ve *seen* the EBS used, but what I’d like to experience is HEARING it used on the radio. They have those tests, but when bad weather comes, the regular radio hosts seem to cover it without much extra by the EBS. Maybe that’s just because the second a tornado warning comes up, I’m holed up in the basement with the TV on instead.

    posted by Jamie on 1-22-2010 at 12:28 pm

  64. 1: my hometown of Shillington, PA is the birthplace of john updike. Reading, PA, which is close by, is the basis for the town of “Brewer” in updike’s books. Shillington is the basis for “Olinger”.
    Shillington is bordered by Wyomissing, PA, where Taylor Swift grew up.

    2: I’ve seen and heard the EBS for two separate amber alerts in the last year. i’ve never heard it being used for any other actual alerts

    posted by mike on 1-22-2010 at 12:28 pm

  65. Lenexa, KS was the spinach capital of the world in the 1930′s. We have an annual festival with a giant spinach salad to celebrate. We also host the Kansas State Championship for BBQ

    posted by Hismom on 1-22-2010 at 12:31 pm

  66. Claremore, Oklahoma.
    Home of Will Rogers, Pattie Page and the setting for the musical “Oklahoma”. Also my highschool principal’s son married Tom Brokaw’s daughter.

    posted by Heather on 1-22-2010 at 12:32 pm

  67. @Julia – Small world, another person from the Hock here. Although KP was always better at everything than Canton.

    1) Canton, MA was the vacation spot for Paul Revere, which is fun. It also has a famous viaduct if you’re into that sort of thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Viaduct)

    3) My first proper word was “Bird.” Not the animal, the Basketball player. It also could have been Big Bird, but it’s sounds much more impressively masculine if it had to do with sports, right?

    posted by Matt on 1-22-2010 at 12:32 pm

  68. Pensacola, Fl (my hometown) is famous for a few things and people. The town in Alabama where I live now, however is famous for absolutely no one and no thing!

    We get a lot of the EBS actual emergency alerts due to hurricanes, tropical storms, and frequent severe thunderstorms that pop up nearly every afternoon during the summer. And, lately, due to flash floods– this winter has been extremely wet.

    When my son was just around a year old, he was obsessed with tractors and such and people used to get a kick out of hearing him point out brands (“Dat’s John Deere, dat’s New ‘Howwand,’ etc) and types of equipment (my favorite: “Dat’s a giant eptavatow” (excavator). He started talking at a very early age, and, 6 years later, hasn’t stopped yet!

    Haha, recapta: who hearths (sounds like something from a Dr. Seuss book!)

    posted by LadyBugg on 1-22-2010 at 12:32 pm

  69. 1. I live in Orlando, FL. So…Disney? So, I’ll go with my college, University of Central Florida. Home of Daunte Culpepper, and the dudes who made the Blair Witch Project.

    2. I heard it once, for a tornado warning. It scared me silly.

    3. I said my sister’s name, Gigi. She’d spend hours by my crib, repeating her name over and over until it became the first word I spoke. I think I just did it to get her off my back. ;)

    posted by Debbie on 1-22-2010 at 12:34 pm

  70. 1. I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin. Appleton’s biggest claim to fame (off the top of my head) has to be the fact that Harry Houdini lived there from about age 6 to 13, after emigrating from Hungary and before moving to NYC. I volunteered in the Harry Houdini Museum as a teenager.

    posted by Steve on 1-22-2010 at 12:36 pm

  71. 1. There is a giant gold pyramid in my hometown, Wadsworth, IL (link in my name). We use it as a landmark when giving directions, “after you pass the pyramid, go about a mile more and turn.” They used to give tours, but haven’t in a while, and now they don’t even want people stopping on the street to look, so they usually have security outside.

    posted by lisa on 1-22-2010 at 12:36 pm

  72. East Hartford, CT… fictional home of the show Judging Amy, which incidentally I’ve never seen. But I hear it looks really nice on TV, so it obviously wasn’t actually filmed in EH. And the EBS is generally only tested up here, CT isn’t prone to quakes, tornadoes, earthquakes and the like.

    posted by Rob on 1-22-2010 at 12:37 pm

  73. my documented first sentence according to my baby book was…
    “Gum, Mommy please.”

    reCatcha: After romance

    posted by Lewen on 1-22-2010 at 12:38 pm

  74. 1. Try being from Chattanooga, TN and tell people from out-of-state where you’re from – you get the classic Glen Miller “Chattanooga Choo Choo” song sung at you all the time.

    3. My 20-month-old daughter started screaming the name of one of her friends at day care a couple of months ago. As soon as I get close to the school I hear, “Ella!! Ella!!” shouted from the backseat. Sometimes it’s “Elllll-aaaaaaa!”

    reCaptcha – said engorge (hee-hee, really?)

    posted by Kel on 1-22-2010 at 12:40 pm

  75. Gainesville, GA

    “The Chicken Capital of the World”
    If you eat chicken it was probably processed in my home town.

    Also the home of Charlie Daniels of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” and Geico commercial fame. …and yes, he can play a mean fiddle.

    posted by Whit on 1-22-2010 at 12:41 pm

  76. Pikeville, KY:
    -Birthplace of Dwight Yoakam.
    -Home to the world’s second largest land-moving project, behind the Panama Canal.
    -Once a year, Shriners from all over the world swarm upon the town at a festival called Hillbilly Days.

    posted by travels on 1-22-2010 at 12:43 pm

  77. The Slavic Village area of Cleveland, Ohio is unfortunately known as one of the worst-hit neighborhoods in the current mortgage crisis. It’s still home to me…I heart Slavic Village.

    posted by Cath on 1-22-2010 at 12:43 pm

  78. I grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, and when I was 9 we had the world’s biggest peace-time evacuation – 250,000 people (including me) had to leave town for a few days after a train carrying propane and chlorine gas derailed and blew up.

    I now live in Vancouver, BC. I understand we’re having a little sporting event here soon…

    posted by Jon. on 1-22-2010 at 12:45 pm

  79. Bay Village, Ohio.

    The Murder of Marilyn Sheppard by Sam Sheppard which supposedly was the basis for the TV series and Movie “The Fugitive.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Sheppard

    posted by Evan on 1-22-2010 at 12:47 pm

  80. I was a schoolgirl living in Fremont, CA when Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal in figure skating in 1992. She’s also from Fremont. Her dad’s a local dentist, and several of my friends (but not me, tragically) went to him for dental work. He was happy to have Kristi autograph whatever you wanted. It was so cool.

    My youngest’s first “proper noun” of sorts was “spongebob”–and we don’t watch that show. My mom was staying with us and someone had given her some spongebob squarepants pajamas. When she wore them, we’d sing the theme song, using “spongebob grandma” instead of “spongebob squarepants”. One morning she came down to breakfast in them and I started singing it and the baby–about 10 months old–said, “spongebob grandma” with me. Precocious little thing. :)

    posted by Jennet on 1-22-2010 at 12:48 pm

  81. 1) Well, I was born in Tulsa, and seeing that I hit middle school (albeit around Oklahoma City), the BFD was that boy band wonder Hanson was from there.
    I grew up in Bethany, which was home to Astronaut Shannon Lucid (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lucid.html), who stayed in space for the longest of any women astronauts.
    Nearby OKC is famous for the federal building bombing, Will Rogers (who died in a plane crash, yet the airport is named after him…irony lives), the Flaming Lips and a million other cowboys/musicians/olympians, etc

    2) once again, grew up in Oklahoma, so when DIDN’T I hear the EBS…

    3) no kids of my own, but I think my first word was ‘dada’. I’m thinking I meant the art movement, but probably meant my ‘dad’. World will never know…

    posted by OkieMelissa on 1-22-2010 at 12:51 pm

  82. My hometown, Fort Smith, AR, is known for the “hanging Judge” Judge Parker. You can tour the old courthouse and jail and see the gallows where the outlaws were hung. (hanged?)

    posted by rbatara on 1-22-2010 at 12:54 pm

  83. 1. My home town is Harrisburg, PA. We’re not that famous for anything really. It’s the state capitol, and home of the National Civil War Museum (that no one visits)…other than that, we don’t have much. I did live in Indiana, PA and that is said to be the Christmas Tree capitol of the world.

    2. The EBS gets used once in a great while when the river floods, other than that it is used to for testing b/c Three Mile Island is just down the river from the city.

    3. My first word was “Susquehanna”, b/c we lived on the Susquehanna River. My 2 year old son’s first word was kitty-cat (we have 2 of them), and he also started saying Sean (that’s our neighbor) even before he started saying Mama or Dada. He refuses to call our 6 month old by his name, but will only call him “brother”.

    posted by J-me on 1-22-2010 at 12:55 pm

  84. My hometownof Melrose, Mass is so not know for anything that most people from Boston, which is only 11 miles to the south, have never heard of it.

    posted by Dave on 1-22-2010 at 12:59 pm

  85. Robbinsdale MN, Hometown of a bunch of Pro Wrestlers, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, “Mean” Gene Okerlund , ” Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig,”The Russian Nightmare” Nikita Koloff, Verne Gagne. Growing up, we used to see Mr. Perfect at the public pool all the time. Also, Steve Zahn from Saving Silverman.

    RC: in Zanzibar

    posted by JFRANKO on 1-22-2010 at 1:06 pm

  86. If it’s any consolation, Dave, I don’t work far from where you live and have coworkers from Melrose so I’ve heard of it. :)

    posted by Mother Chat on 1-22-2010 at 1:08 pm

  87. 1. Laredo, Texas – Currently, the Miss Texas beauty pageant is hosted here. Also, the town is home to the only Washington’s Birthday celebration in the United States (it was featured in National Geographic a few years back)
    Also, Laredo is making news now as being the biggest city without a bookstore within a hundred mile radius.

    The town I live in now is Eagle Pass, Texas. I am somewhat regretful in saying that not only are we known for a Jonas Brothers reference as well but also because I’m one of the town’s claims to fame.
    1) One of the local girls from town is a backup singer for the Jonas brothers.
    2) I was a guest on the Tyra Banks show recently and I also met the cast of the show Glee; my high school went crazy about it and to this day I’ve been pegged as “the girl who was on Tyra”. Crazy, huh?
    3)Our town has been referred to as the best place in the world for hunting White-tail deer.
    4) The nacho (the actual food) was reportedly invented invented in the neighboring Mexican town and sold here first.
    5) A Hispanic music star named Gary Hobbs was born here. My mom works with his sister.
    6) 2 years ago, we suffered a huge tornado that was all over the news (we were on tv for more than 30 seconds) After that, the news stopped caring.
    7) Eagle Pass is reportedly the 19th poorest region in the United States

    2. I’ve only witnessed the EBS be used during the tornado and during a severe freeze like 5 years ago.

    3. The first word my little brother learned how to spell is a three letter word that refers to a booty and a donkey. Rather than punish him, my mom just laughed. My first word was “flower” mostly after watching Bambi repeatedly.

    posted by Jen on 1-22-2010 at 1:14 pm

  88. My hometown, Kalamazoo, MI, is known for that “I’ve Got a Girl in Kalamazoo” barbershop song. We’ve also had an Elvis sighting, grew celery, and are mentioned in Creedence Clearwater Song (down on the corner, the boys are playing a kalamazoo as one of their instruments…still have no idea what that is). We also have Pfizer – formerly Upjohn – the makers of Rogaine. All in all, a pretty impressive town.

    posted by EMCB on 1-22-2010 at 1:19 pm

  89. 1. My town of Olney, IL has a fairly large and unique white squirrel population. The only reason they exist is because there are steep fines for killing them. They’re stupid and obvious targets for stray cats. Natural selection undone by legislation.

    2. I remember the Emergency Broadcast System warning us about Tornados all the time. I don’t have cable, but I’m sure they still do it.

    3. My daughter’s first word was mommy, then daddy, then kitty, then Abby (her sister). All of my other kids said daddy first.

    posted by Nick on 1-22-2010 at 1:19 pm

  90. 1: Calgary – We hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. Some movies filmed in and around here:
    Brokeback Mountain
    Legends of the Fall
    Unforgiven
    Exit Wounds
    Rat Race
    Open Range
    Shanghai Noon
    Silver Streak
    Cool Runnings
    Superman I, II, III (one and two only parts of it. III was completely filmed here)
    River of No Return (Banff)

    Calgary is also home to the creator of Spawn, Todd McFarlane and the creator of Java Gosling and my personal favourite, Bruce Boa, he played “The American” in Fawlty Towers and General Rieekan in The Empire Strikes Back

    posted by Ted Lange As Your Bartender on 1-22-2010 at 1:20 pm

  91. Because of being very close to New York City, New Rochelle, NY has been the home to many celebrities including Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays. Lately, the big thing is that it’s the hometown of Baltimore Ravens running back, Ray Rice.

    posted by M. on 1-22-2010 at 1:23 pm

  92. New Richmond Wisconsin, birthplace of Wis Senator Warren G. Knowles. (whoop te doo)

    Just the usual bad storm warnings on the EBS…

    and, I always thought Ripon Wis was the birthplace of the Republican Party…

    posted by Anne on 1-22-2010 at 1:23 pm

  93. Forgot about the other questions
    I have heard the EBS actually issue warnings a few times. Once was in a hotel room in Couer D’Alene Idaho and the warning came on about potential flooding.
    The other times were in Calgary warning about severe weather/ tornadoes.

    posted by Ted Lange As Your Bartender on 1-22-2010 at 1:24 pm

  94. My hometown of Russell Springs, KY is famous for about a total of two things. A coked out Miss USA in Tara Conner, and a country music singer in Steve Wariner. I actually went to elementary school with his niece. And we have a road named after him. But other than that, I ain’t got nothin’. Except e’ryone dun think we’re all a bunch o’ hillbillies down here in these parts. =/

    posted by Cody on 1-22-2010 at 1:24 pm

  95. 1. My hometown, Mt. Juliet, TN, claim to fame is it is home to Charlie Daniels and is the purple matrin capital of the world.

    2. I grew up in Iowa, so EBS is common.

    3. My son’s first word was “hello” at age 4 weeks.

    recaptcha striking azul (poor azul!)

    posted by DB on 1-22-2010 at 1:25 pm

  96. 1. Condensed milk originated here (thanks to Gail Borden), also the guy who worked for Edison and invented electric Christmas tree lights had a house here.

    2. Yup – tornado warnings.

    posted by JFS in IL on 1-22-2010 at 1:26 pm

  97. I’m from Bakersfield, CA. Our claims to fame include:
    1. Being made fun of by Johnny Carson
    2. Buck Owens
    3. Birthplace of the baby carrot (Grimmway Farms)
    4. “The Grapes of Wrath” story ended in Bakersfield, and now there’s a Dust Bowl Festival every year.
    5. Hell’s Satans, the motorcycle gang in “The Simpsons,” was from Bakersfield
    6. Too many to list… anytime a movie or TV show wants to portray a character as offbeat, quirky or trashy, the character seems to be from Bako.
    7. The band KORN is from Bakersfield.
    8. Kevin Harvick is from Bakersfield. As is a slew of other Nascar drivers.

    But… now that I live in Atlanta, there’s many uses of the Emergency Broadcast System during tornado season. Each spring, we are bombarded by tornado warnings on TV and radio.

    My daughter’s first word was “mama.” Then she said “Gigi” for Fergie, our Westie. Pet names are a common theme for first words, it seems.

    posted by Carolyn on 1-22-2010 at 1:27 pm

  98. @J-me – um, Harrisburg PA is known for the \little accident\ at 3 Mile Island

    posted by kmg on 1-22-2010 at 1:32 pm

  99. My hometown is Pensacola, FL…which is also the hometown of Roy Jones, Jr. and Emmit Smith, as well as a few other lesser known athletes.

    posted by Sarah on 1-22-2010 at 1:37 pm

  100. I am from Bel Air, Maryland: Home of John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot and killed President Lincoln. When I was in elementary school we would walk to the Booths’ house for field trips. The main attractions were a window pane on which he scratched his initials using a diamond ring as a child, and a series of photographs of his supposed ghost which is said to haunt the place still.

    It is also the home of the Bush River Declaration, wherein the citizens of Harford County declared their independence from the British. It was the first such declaration made by any legislative body in the 13 colonies and predates the Declaration of Independence by over a year.

    I guess we are a politically disgruntled bunch.

    posted by MathWiz on 1-22-2010 at 1:42 pm

  101. @ M. -

    I always enjoy the fact that Don ‘American Pie’ McLean and I were both born there on the same day, though he is 14 years OLDER…

    Plus, it’s also the birthplace of a certain
    James Douglas Muir Leno

    posted by Anon Emous on 1-22-2010 at 1:43 pm

  102. 1. Columbus, Ohio– the location of the first Wendy’s. Unfortunately, it was closed a few years ago.
    The Shawshank Redemption was shot in Mansfield, Ohio, which is sort of close. They do tours every year for Halloween.

    posted by Nora on 1-22-2010 at 1:45 pm

  103. My hometown we have a clinic you may have heard of. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.
    Also Doc Moonlight Graham of field of dreams is buried here.

    posted by dbus on 1-22-2010 at 1:50 pm

  104. Well, the city I was born in (Morristown TN) was where the original Evil Dead was filmed. Now, locals won’t tell you exactly where the cabin was, but I’ve seen it.. Or rather what’s left of it. Pretty cool, if you’re a fan of the movie.
    Later, I moved to Knoxville TN, which is known for, among other things, the mess of a World’s Fair we had in 1982.
    Then I moved to New Market TN, where Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of many books, including Including A Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess, moved to at age 16. Todd Collins, NFL player, was born here.. Plus there was a big headon train collision in 1904 here that killed 114 people. Kind of a lot for a town that doesn’t even have a McDonald’s! Haha

    posted by JessicaB on 1-22-2010 at 1:53 pm

  105. 1) Eureka, MO: home to Six Flags St. Louis, formerly Six Flags over Mid-America…also Nelly bought his mother a home on the border between Eureka and Wildwood, every now and then you’ll see his yellow “Nelly-mobile” at Wal-Mart
    2) I’ve seen it used many times for tornadoes in the area in the early spring
    3)I don’t have kids, but my youngest sister spawned my nickname when she learned to talk. For a while she used “ma” for both my name (Mary) and “mom”. This frustrated her when the person who answered wasn’t the one she wanted. She was still a bit too young to put “ma” and “ree” together to say my name, so I became the latter: “Ree-ree”
    My mom also says that I didn’t call my father “dad”, I used his first name because she didn’t want to refer to her husband as “daddy”, but once she gave up on that (she got really awkward looks at the store when I called my dad by his first name), I started to call him “daddy” too, and still do!

    posted by Mary on 1-22-2010 at 1:54 pm

  106. I’m from Hopkinton, MA which is famous for the start of the Boston Marathon. My dad ran it 14 times, and I think it started off as a “might as well” kind of idea. All it really amounts to is one morning a year when you can’t drive across town and the ability to immediately recognize the Kenyan flag.

    posted by Jessica on 1-22-2010 at 2:02 pm

  107. 1. I’m from Memphis, Tenn. We’re known for Graceland, Sun Studios, Justin Timberlake, Three 6 Mafia, and other musical individuals/groups (some of which get their start on Beale Street). We’re also famous for barbeque. Lots of movies have been filmed here. Andrew Jackson helped form the city. Too much to mention.

    posted by Laura on 1-22-2010 at 2:04 pm

  108. 1. My hometown of Monroe, MI, actually has several claims to fame. It is the home of:

    -General George S. Custer
    -Miss America 1988, Kaye Lani Rae Rafko
    -La-Z-Boy
    -Two Men and a Truck
    -Ernie Harwell (longtime announcer for the Detroit Tigers)

    I’m probably missing something, but that’s what I can think of off the top of my head.

    The city I live in now (Lafayette, IN), is most notable for Purdue University (well, West Lafayette is, anyway) and for being the hometown of Axl Rose (as well as GNR’s rhythm guitarist, Izzy Stradlin.)

    2. I’ve seen the EBS used for tornado warnings and during the ice storm of ’98 when I lived in northern New York State.

    3. My daughter said “Mama” when she was 3 months old. Yet it took her until she was 14 months old to walk. Being better at language vs. being athletic means that the apple does not fall far from the tree, as I’m the same way!

    posted by Krie on 1-22-2010 at 2:05 pm

  109. 1) Shoreline, WA is known as either the 1st or 2nd town to impose a “4-foot rule” on strippers. That’s only of note because Norm MacDonald compared us to “Nazi Germany” on Weekend Update when it happened. Also, Wikipedia says that Chris Cornell and Edgar and Sig Hansen for “Deadliest Catch” went to my high school (Shorewood High School).

    2)I have never seen the EBS in action. We had an fairly big earthquake in 2001 (6.7 or 7.1 on the Richter scale depending on who you ask) that caused billions in damage, but that didn;t even trigger it. Not sure what qualifies as an “emergency” if that didn’t get the job done.

    3) First word: uh-oh, first proper noun: Roger (my dog).

    posted by Sean O. on 1-22-2010 at 2:07 pm

  110. @kmg- Thanks I forgot to post that…thought I did. Guess I should learn to re-read my posts before I enter them.

    posted by J-me on 1-22-2010 at 2:10 pm

  111. 1- Rome City, IN- came into being when they were building a lake that was to have been part of the Erie Canal- which was to have connected up with the Mississippi River at one time; the railroad came along and made that plan impractical before the canal was ever dug that far.
    2- Being from the Midwest, tornadoes come to mind… and often. And- once at work, we had what turned out to not be an evacuation drill- the pilot plant attached to research and development of Great Lakes Chem had a major spill and we were all evacuated- first to the parking lot, then to a site down the road.

    posted by ann on 1-22-2010 at 2:13 pm

  112. I’m from Milwaukee, “And I oughta know”…(beer commercial from the 60′s – Blatz beer. That’s how it felt when you drank a can…BLATZ. Bad stuff.
    Claims to fame?
    Liberace. My mom used to see him on her lunch hour playing in the Plankington building – he became quite the “sensation”…
    Les Paul. Actually from Waukesha, a town unto itself but somehow a suburb of Milw.
    Darryl Stuermer – guitarist for Genesis and Phil Collins.
    The Violent Femmes.
    Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads.
    Well, the list goes on…..

    My daughter called me LALA for the first two years of her life – I loved it.

    I never did get those tests. Like I never got crouching under my school desk in the 50′s in case of an atom bomb attack…that desk would have really protected me…well, today we have the Taliban and Terrorists to keep us paranoid… not to mention the American Taliban as well (i.e. religious conservatives)…some God help us -whichever one…

    posted by Spiro on 1-22-2010 at 2:17 pm

  113. 1. The city in which I live, Deland, Florida, is considered the “skydiving capital of the world”. It has one of the only fulltime skydiving facilities that is open 365 days a year. It was the shooting location for a few movies: Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy”, “Days of Thunder” starring Tom Cruise and “Ghost Story” starring Fred Astaire. Deland is also known for a few of its famous former residents: Chipper Jones(Atlanta Braves player) and Terence Trent D’Arby(singer-songwriter). Not too bad for a city with a population of around 25,000 :-).

    posted by Liz on 1-22-2010 at 2:25 pm

  114. 1. Littlefield, TX
    Hometown of Wylon Jennings. His brother James Jennings still lives here and owns a liquor store/Waylon museum that used to be Jennings full service gas station.

    2. Been used a few times around here considering we are at the bottom of tornado alley.

    3. My youngest daughters first word was “Please”, which is what I would make her say whenever she tried to take or grab something.

    posted by Cheezy on 1-22-2010 at 2:27 pm

  115. 1) Versailles, IN. We had one stop-light and a Dairy Queen so that we had that going for us. A band of confederate soldiers once broke ranks and raided the area so high school mascots were the Raiders. We’re famous for our mispronunciation of the town: it’s Ver-sales. (but this might be equally said for Versailles OH and KY)

    2) No actual EBS viewings/hearings for myself.

    3) The bun in my oven isn’t talking yet. My own first sentence was “Come on down!” from Price Is Right–love that Bob Barker.

    posted by Jess on 1-22-2010 at 2:27 pm

  116. Birthplace is Joliet Illinois. Famous for the prison (natural born killers, public enemies, blues brothers and prison break were filmed at that prison). Unfortunately also famous for the birthplace of Andy Dick and Adrianne Curry. Went to high school with Adrianne Curry, I was a senior and she was a freshman. When that dumb show came on and mentioned that she went to the same high school I had to look at my old year book. Pretty funny, she was wearing a nine inch nails shirt and had what was called then as “hoe bangs”. This was a hair style popular with the white trash female population in the late 90’s. It consisted of putting a ton of gel in your hair and pulling it all back tight against your skull, then you take a thin clump of hair on both sides of your forehead and put that down over your face. Also Rudy was from Joliet, I don’t care for the movie but some might.

    posted by alex on 1-22-2010 at 2:28 pm

  117. 1. My hometown is Raymond, ME, childhood home of Nathaniel Hawthorne and “the home of the landlocked salmon.” Seriously, there’s a species of salmon (salmo salavar sebago, I believe) that only lives in the big lake in Raymond. I live in Boston now, the only salmon I ever see is on a plate.
    2. Maine doesn’t have too many tornadoes, but I saw EBS once for an amber alert.
    3. I have no idea what my first word was, but I’ve emailed my mom to find out. Good question!

    posted by Adrienne on 1-22-2010 at 2:28 pm

  118. 1) My hometown Quincy, Florida is the site of one of the few Fuller’s earth mines in the US (you make cat litter and stuff out of it) and the movie “Something Wild” was filmed there in the 80′s (my friends and I stalked Ray Liotta).

    2) We have these all the time due to flooding and tornados.

    3) My daughter could barely say “Momma” when her babysitter asked if she wanted some juice and she said, “No, cappucino”.

    posted by Donna on 1-22-2010 at 2:28 pm

  119. i clearly remember a local radio station play the wrong EBS one morning, when i was about fourteen (early 90′s.) it went something like this “[*beep*beep*beep*] This is the Emergency Broadcast System. A state of National Emergency has been declared. Please seek shelter in an appropriate bomb or fallout shelter, basement or other underground facility immediately. This is not a test. Repeat…”

    then the DJ came back on, laughing, and said, “Oops! That wasn’t the one i was supposed to play!” they’d accidentally played the EBS message for an incoming nuclear attack!

    one of the creepiest things i’ve ever heard, and it scared the living crap out of me!

    posted by Cat MacKinnon on 1-22-2010 at 2:40 pm

  120. Well, this is pretty exciting…it’s my first time posting on this site (though I’ve read daily for a few weeks)! :)

    1. I grew up in Durham, ME, hometown to Stephen King. In fact, my 7th grade English teacher was principal of the school while he was a student there. She had some rather interesting tales!

    2. The emergency broadcast system in ME generally has weather advisements and alerts, if it is not just a test.

    3. My oldest’s first proper name (other than Mama and Daddy) was Auntie ‘Manda. My son’s was “Jimmy Neutron”, for some reason, even as a small infant, the theme song always delighted him. :)

    p.s. Capta is: “under ginsu” appropriate, no? :)

    posted by Sadie on 1-22-2010 at 2:40 pm

  121. I grew up in Gilroy, CA, also known as he Garlic Capital of the World. I have had people in Europe and China know this when I told them where I lived. Mind Boggling. Annual Garlic Festival is amazing for tens of thousands of people, but for me it is a nasty high school reunion full of drunk former classmates that I prefer to avoid. I have my little sister bring me garlic stuffed mushrooms and pesto pasta though. The food is amazing

    posted by spike49 on 1-22-2010 at 2:43 pm

  122. 1. My hometown, Rochester Hills, MI, is famous for being the hometown of Madonna. There is lots of other stuff there too but that is the one everyone talks about. The house she grew up in was recently in the news for being a wreck.

    2. We hear the EBS every so often during severe weather. And I think they started using it for Amber alerts too.

    3. My sons first word was dada, daughter was gaga (trying to say her brothers name Jacob)

    posted by Nickel_5 on 1-22-2010 at 2:44 pm

  123. My hometown is Port Arthur, TX home of Janis Joplin. The museum we have here has a whole section dedicated to her. I am sure other things have originated here, I just have not taken the time out to find out.

    2. Since I live in a hurricane prone area we have had an emergency broadcast about severe weather. That sort of thing.

    posted by Chelsea G. on 1-22-2010 at 2:45 pm

  124. 1) Smithville, Tx home of Thomas Carter, director for such TV shows as, St Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice and many more. We also have the Worlds largest gingerbread man, and several movies have been filmed here.

    posted by John the Third on 1-22-2010 at 2:46 pm

  125. 1. I was born at Fort Huachuca, AZ, and it gets mentioned in the Tom Clancy book Clear and Present Danger, and there’s a brief establishing shot in the movie version.

    But I never really lived there, we moved when I was a couple of weeks old to suburban MN, first to Roseville (home of MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson) and then to Shoreview.

    My high school became a plot point in Clint Eastwood’s In the Line of Fire, where John Malkovich tells the bank lady that he’s from MN and she says that she was too, so she asks him what High School he went to, he says “Arden Hills High School”. She points out there is no Arden Hills HS, which is true. The HS in Arden Hills is called Mounds View HS. It is curious, Mounds View is a seperate suburb, but MVHS isn’t in the city of Mounds View. I think most of students who live in MV go to Irondale HS. Go figure.

    Oh yeah, then John Malkovich’s character kills the nice Minnesotan bank lady (and her roommate) for finding out he’s not really from MN.

    posted by Big Jonny on 1-22-2010 at 2:47 pm

  126. Memphis, TN – home of Elvis, The Blues, and the best BBQ in the United States!!
    (recaptcha: shiro agreed)

    posted by Programmher T on 1-22-2010 at 2:51 pm

  127. My hometown, Stewartville, MN, is the hometown of Richard Sears, co-founder of Sears and Roebuck (now just Sears).

    Another odd fact about this being my hometown. My Grandfather’s great aunt (so my great-great-great aunt) was married to the town founders brother and lived in a house just two doors down from where I grew up.

    posted by Matt H on 1-22-2010 at 2:57 pm

  128. 1. I’ve lived in Wasilla, Alaska my entire life. Up until a little over a year ago, no one had ever heard of our town or knew where it was (excluding a few who knew it was the start of the Iditarod). Then suddenly Sarah Palin is announced as John McCain’s running mate and our town was all over the news. It was surreal.

    3. No kids of my own yet. But my first word was “more”. I’ve always known what I wanted :)

    posted by Moth on 1-22-2010 at 3:01 pm

  129. 1. I used to live in New Milford, CT which was a teeeeeny little town in western Connecticut. Parts of the movie Mr. Deeds (the scenes where Adam Sandler’s character is in his hometown) were filmed there–I took music lessons on the street where they were filming and we could see Adam Sandler from the window. I just Wikipedia’d New Milford, though, and it turns out that a bunch of movies were filmed there too. Probably because the town is so quaint-looking.

    posted by Jessica on 1-22-2010 at 3:08 pm

  130. 1. My hometown is Franklin Massachusetts, and it is the place of the oldest public library in the United States. Ben Franklin even donated several books to help establish it. It is also home to the oldest one room school in the United States (the Red Brick School) and birthplace of Horace Mann, the father of public education in America.

    posted by Chris H. on 1-22-2010 at 3:08 pm

  131. Leominster MA – recently lived there there – birthplace of Johnny Appleseed.

    Round Rock, TX – hometown – original Texas Chainsaw Massacre filmed in creepy house up the street from mine.

    posted by Illustr8 on 1-22-2010 at 3:10 pm

  132. ‘One’ of my early hometowns (when I was 11) was living in Palma, Mallorca, Spain (the island in the Mediterranean). It was famous for the abstract artist Juan Miro, and currently – Rafeal Nadal (tennis)!

    I always heard the EBS tests on TV (never in an actual emergency) and that noise has ALWAYS sent a shiver up my spine! Even before the scary robot voice..
    If there is a ‘brown note’ frequency, then this must be close to it, or the ‘red scare-y note’.

    posted by John W on 1-22-2010 at 3:23 pm

  133. Not exactly the EBS but while attending a Navy school in California the local air raid/nuclear attack siren went off at 2am. Ten times louder than any fire horn, could be heard for 15 miles, needless to say it shook the barracks all the sailors were asleep in. We got up, looked out the window and doors and then went back to bed. It lasted for a few minutes and then fizzled out.

    posted by Owen on 1-22-2010 at 3:23 pm

  134. My hometown’s claim to fame:
    Forked River, NJ: Home of the “Prom Mom”
    (teen gave birth at the prom)

    Sad beyond belief. It even made the news in Europe, for Christ’s sake!

    posted by Sandra Harrigan on 1-22-2010 at 3:32 pm

  135. I grew up in Norfolk, UK and we Norfolk Dumplings are very proud of Edith Cavell. She was a WWI nurse, who was sent to a hospital in occupied Belgium and helped wounded soldiers escape to Holland. She was executed as spy, and was famously quoted as saying to the chaplain before her execution “Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
    Which is pretty damn impressive given the circumstances.

    I’ve never seen an actual emergency being broadcast – But I was once at a film premiere in London’s glamorous Leicester Square when a woman fainted in the middle of the screening and her husband shouted “Is there a doctor in the house?”.

    I don’t know what my first words were, probably “Mummy”. On a similar tack though, my Mum tells me that the first time I remembered a dream was when I was a toddler, and the next morning I told her “There were pictures… in my head!”

    posted by Jen Alien-Spouse on 1-22-2010 at 3:34 pm

  136. I might add that my post above refers to Elgin, IL. Also home of Elgin watches (although the factory was torn down years ago.)

    posted by JFS in IL on 1-22-2010 at 3:34 pm

  137. I went to High School with Holly Madison. Yes, the one that was Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend.

    Never heard a real EBS message.

    posted by JstagrlfromOR on 1-22-2010 at 3:46 pm

  138. I grew up in Chatsworth,CA: supposedly the porn Capitol of the world and the home of the former Spahn ranch where the Manson family lived. Besides those wonderful distinctions, there were many westerns filmed back in the day.

    posted by Lauren on 1-22-2010 at 3:52 pm

  139. Glens Falls, NY was declared “Hometown U.S.A.’, back in the 1940′s 0r ’50′s. It is also the birthplace of Charles Evans Hughes. It was also the inspiration for “The Last Of The Mohicans”. It seems Cooper saw a cave on a rocky island in the Hudson River, now known as Cooper’s Cave, and he pictured Indians hiding there.

    posted by gus on 1-22-2010 at 3:53 pm

  140. I’m from Rock Island, IL where during the Civil War, there was (well, the arsenal is still there) a confederate prison (the most famous convict is Ashley from Gone With the Wind). There’s also the Rock Island Line (for locomotives) and we were known as “Little Chicago” during the 1930s because of our gangsters. the most famous one? John Looney, who was very, VERY loosely based on in that Tom Hanks movie “Road to Perdition.” Yeah, that’s completely inaccurate.

    posted by Kelsey on 1-22-2010 at 3:53 pm

  141. Lowell, MA – birthplace of Jack Kerouac, Bette Davis, and Ed McMahon. Also home of the Winter Festival, featuring the Human Dog Sled race, which was on a Discovery Channel special last year.

    posted by Colleen on 1-22-2010 at 3:54 pm

  142. I’ve lived in the New Haven metro area my whole life and all we’re really known for here is the best pizza in the world and Yale.

    The EBS here regularly broadcasts severe thunderstorm watches/warnings on the radio and such.

    I don’t have kids, but my nephew’s first word is “gato,” the spanish word for cat (he’s half Columbian). I would also argue that it’s harder for CT babies to say “dog” than “Bailey,” since people from CT add a weird k sound to the end of words ending in G, and it’s probably rough on little kids.

    posted by JP on 1-22-2010 at 4:00 pm

  143. Sterling Holloway, the original voice of Winnie the Pooh and the Chesire Cat is from my hometown. …That’s about it…

    posted by Krista on 1-22-2010 at 4:20 pm

  144. More of Greensboro , NC –
    TV/FILM (at least in part):

    P.M. Magazine (1976) (USA: alternative title)
    Above Suspicion (2000)
    Bull Durham (1988) 7
    Eye of the Beholder (2007)
    House of Cards (1993) 5.8/10 (1356 votes)
    Leatherheads (2008)
    Pucked (2006)

    posted by Amy on 1-22-2010 at 4:24 pm

  145. 1: My hometown Weyauwega, WI is famous for the train derailment that caused the entire town of about 1,700 people to be evacuated in 1996. Okay, maybe it is only famous to the people of Weyauwega.

    posted by Stuffanie on 1-22-2010 at 4:25 pm

  146. My hometown is Cleveland, which seems to only be known for the trash on top of the river catching fire in 1969.

    I hear the EBS regularly during tornado season, usually followed by the mechanical voice telling me to seek shelter on the lowest level of my building.

    One thing I thought about after the fact was, did they use the EBS in New York on 9/11/01? If ever there was a time to interrupt the television broadcast to give critical local emergency information, that would have been it.

    I don’t remember my own first words, but I usurped some parents when I was blowing bubbles for one of my babysitting charges, who up until that point had only spewed random streams of sounds, and the kid shrieked repeatedly, “Bubbas! Bubbas!”

    posted by Mel on 1-22-2010 at 4:27 pm

  147. I went to high school in Hoover, AL – home of Mental Floss’ co-founder Will Pearson, American Idol Taylor Hicks, and MTV’s Two-A-Days.

    posted by Cheyenne on 1-22-2010 at 4:31 pm

  148. 1) I grew up just outside of Pottsville, PA – home of Yuengling, the oldest brewery in the US. Additionally, in 1925 the Pottsville Maroons NFL team was the unofficial NFL champion (but the title was stripped and given to the Chicago Cardinals…I discovered this through Wikipedia).

    3) I’ve been told that my first word was “meow.” We had two cats.

    posted by GC on 1-22-2010 at 4:31 pm

  149. I graduated from the same high school as Mike ‘Reno’, of Loverboy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Reno

    posted by @jodie_nodes on 1-22-2010 at 4:35 pm

  150. 1. At the end of the spit in my town of Port angeles, there’s a plaque on a rock that commemorates when a man in the 1920′s swam from there to Victoria, Canada. Considering the fact that it’s a 30 minute trip by ferry and the water is regularly fricking cold, that’s pretty impressive.

    Other than that, we’re known as the town Bella and Edward went to in part of Twilight. *facepalm* Wasn’t even accurate…

    2. I don’t remember what my first words were, and neither does my mom *sad*

    3. The only other time I’ve heard the EBS is for Amber Alerts. They always They always freaked me out a little bit. The bad audio coupled with the descriptions of a missing child disturbs me a little.

    posted by heather on 1-22-2010 at 4:36 pm

  151. My hometown is Elyria, Ohio and the only thing I can think of right now is that President Obama was here today. It’s just north of Oberlin, and that city has lots of history.

    posted by Chris on 1-22-2010 at 4:44 pm

  152. Backwards
    3. Not exactly the first word but at about 18 mos my younger son called his brother “baba.” One day the older son ran off in the grocery store and I was trying to find him by calling out his name and my younger son called out “Donovan” clear as a bell – I was so surprised I just stopped and said “you can say that?”

    2. Hail and Tornado warnings

    1. I come from a really historic town, Sault Ste. Marie, MI. All it is famous for now is the Soo Locks but it has played a very important role in some major historic events. In 1671 Simon-Fran̤ois Daumont de Saint-Lusson invited representatives from several local tribes to a big feast and then stood in a local park (which is now fenced off from the public РBOOO Рand no marker for this event) and pretty much claimed that the whole midwest now belonged to France.
    There’s more but this is already too long.

    posted by Lisa on 1-22-2010 at 4:47 pm

  153. 1. My hometown is also denville, NJ. Also home of the Morris Canal and every business is Denville XXX. (The denville dairy, denville pizza, denville pharmacy..)

    3.) Jerse. The first person my daughter called by name was our cat.

    posted by Erin on 1-22-2010 at 4:55 pm

  154. Pendleton, IN: first place a white man was hanged (hung?) for killing a Native American…we even have a rock/plaque/thing to denote it. Also a historically signifigant post office due to a mural that all post ofices originally had, but most were destroyed when new post offices were built.
    reCaptcha: were dimwits. epic win lol

    posted by Ellie on 1-22-2010 at 4:58 pm

  155. My hometown is Springfield, MA which is best known as the birthplace of basketball and the location of the basketball hall of fame. It is known as The City of Homes, and The City of Firsts.

    It’s also the home of Theodore Geisel (better known as Dr.Suess), Smith & Wesson gun manufacturer, the original Indian Motorcycles and the birthplace of the adjustable “monkey” wrench to name a few.

    Famous residents from Springfield include Kurt Russell, Taj Mahal (blues), Paige Turco, Thornton Burgess (children’s author), Milton Bradley yep the game guy and John Cena of WWE and Nina Blackwood (MTV).

    One thing we are is diverse!

    posted by KarenL on 1-22-2010 at 5:04 pm

  156. Shelton, CT: Home of the Wiffle Ball. Only place they are made.

    posted by Bryan on 1-22-2010 at 5:08 pm

  157. 1.) From Morgan Hill, CA supposedly the mushroom capital of the world. Also right next door to Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world.
    2.) Have see the EBS plenty of times, generally following an earthquake or for an Amber Alert. But just last week we had one for a tornado and hail storm warning.
    3.) I’m not sure what my first word was but my brother’s first word was “shit”

    posted by kristen on 1-22-2010 at 5:09 pm

  158. 1. My hometown is Adel Iowa, home of the Adel Sweet Corn Festival, where 3 TONS of corn are cooked and served. We also have a few locations/ homes that were used for filming The Bridges of Madison Co.
    Back before DARE was popular, our “SKILLS” teacher told us that our fine city was the intersection of two major highways used for drug smuggling.

    2. As you can tell from answer 1, I live in Iowa. I’ve seen the EBS used for tornados and flash floods. I’ve heard it more frequently on the radio than TV.

    3. My first word was pretty general- Daddy. My sister’s however, was lid. My other sister’s was shoe.

    posted by Katrina on 1-22-2010 at 5:10 pm

  159. Adel is also mentioned in “On The Road” by Jack Kerouak.

    posted by Katrina on 1-22-2010 at 5:12 pm

  160. 1) Plano, TX – known for
    a) being a hotbed of heroin overdoses in the 1990s by affluent teenagers
    b) the hometown of Michael Urie of “Ugly Betty” fame (he went to my High School! Before I went there…)
    c) and the woefully ill-represented hometown of the main character in “Supreme Courtship,” a satirical novel. I doubt the author of “Supreme Courtship” has ever actually been to Plano, after reading the novel. Big disappointment.

    posted by Megan on 1-22-2010 at 5:14 pm

  161. 1. Great to see so many Buckeyes on here! I’m from a little town called Norwalk, OH. We have a few claims to fame:

    1) Birthplace of Paul Brown, founder of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals
    2) Home of Summit Motorsports Park, which is a drag strip and is where the International Hot Rod Association is headquartered
    3) Walt Disney’s mother was apparently born there
    4) The “Norwalk Virus” or Norovirus originated at a small elementary school just outside of town

    I also live about 20 mins from Cedar Point in Sandusky and 10 minutes from Thomas Edison’s birthplace in Milan.

    2. I hear the EBS almost every summer for tornado warnings.

    posted by Kelsey on 1-22-2010 at 5:23 pm

  162. WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI

    took the most direct hit during hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    The EBS warned us still, oddly enough.

    posted by Elle on 1-22-2010 at 5:34 pm

  163. I live just outside the birthplace of the potato chip. That’s a pretty good claim to fame, I think, since so many people eat so many of them.

    posted by MH on 1-22-2010 at 5:53 pm

  164. 1. My hometown, Makakilo, Hawaii, isn’t famous for much: A professional surfer or two. I’ve lived here in Parkersburg, WV for 20 years and while there have been more famous people from here than most people realize, probably the more well-known ones are Paul Dooley, who played Molly Ringwald’s dad on Sixteen Candles, and Nick Swisher, who plays for the NY Yankees.
    2. I’ve actually seen the EBS used for 2 events: Hurricane Iwa and an impending tsunami, both in the 80′s in Hawaii.

    posted by Wixxy on 1-22-2010 at 6:01 pm

  165. 1) I live in Ft Collins, Colorado, which is known for…
    a. Balloon boy
    b. the Peggy Hettrick murder case
    c. Money’s best place to live 2006
    d. being the home of Colorado State University

    2) I hear the EBS a lot for winter storm warnings, as well as the occasional flash flood or tornado warning.

    posted by Mia on 1-22-2010 at 6:03 pm

  166. 3. Well, I guess I’m not a very good mum, because I don’t remember my daughter’s first word (hey, it was probably close to 18 years ago!), but I do distinctly remember her telling me when she was three years old that it was her prerogative to not eat lunch. Yeah, end of argument, there.

    posted by Beth on 1-22-2010 at 6:04 pm

  167. I grew up in Ozone Park (Queens) NY -

    Jack Kerouak lived here while he wrote “The Town and the City” and “On the Road”.

    Cyndi Lauper and Bernadette Peters grew up here. So did Debra Wilson from MadTV. Her sister Lesette and I were good friends in JHS.

    John Gotti’s Bergin Hunt and Fish Club was here.

    Jimmy Burke of the 1978 Lufthansa Heist lived here.

    posted by Sue on 1-22-2010 at 6:19 pm

  168. 1. Not too far from Denville, I am from Hoboken, NJ. Though not born here, my mother and I moved here when I was 4 in 1985 and I haven’t left since.

    Hoboken is only one square mile in size (we are called The Mile Square City), but it is known for many things. Hoboken is mostly known for baseball and Frank Sinatra.

    We incorrectly bill ourselves as the “Birthplace of Baseball”, but really it is just the location of the first recorded organized game of baseball. We still think we deserve the Hall of Fame over Cooperstown.

    Hoboken is the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, and if you ever visited, you will be reminded of it everywhere. I used to play stickball on the same block he once played on.

    Other fun Hoboken tidbits:

    -On the Waterfront was filmed here
    -the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s floats and balloons are built here
    -first ever Blimpie’s location (they moved a few blocks a few years ago; it’s a laundromat now)
    -Bruce Springsteen shot “Glory Days” here
    -Cake Boss on TLC is filmed here
    -Joey Pants of Sopranos and Goonies fame is from here
    -Artie Lange and Eli Manning currently live here (not together), and I always see Danny Aiello around
    -”The Mad Real World” on “Chappelle’s Show” was in Hoboken
    -Harold and Kumar (Go to White Castle) are supposed to live in Hoboken, and some shots of it are included in the beginning of the movie
    -the first girl to play Little League
    -bubble wrap was co-developed by an engineer who graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology located in Hoboken; I also went there; that fact was mentioned at least once every semester
    -unfortunately, home of the earliest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the first Saturday of March; bars open at like 8AM and every alcoholic idiot located within 50 miles of here comes here to yell, urinate, vomit, litter all over the place; the one day I hate living here

    I love my hometown.

    posted by Kedar on 1-22-2010 at 6:31 pm

  169. I’m from Colorado Springs, CO, home to the Air Force Academy Zoomies and also NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) which used to be located in Cheyenne Mountain (yes, inside the mountain not just on it). It provides air space info and defense for both the US and Canada. I have seen it in several spy type movies, including a Jack Ryan movie or two. NORAD also tracks Santa every Christmas Eve. There’s a website now, but when I was little they did radio updates. Some Lt. Col. would come on the radio every hour and give an update on Santa’s position in the world.

    My high school has a few famous grads. Elvira is one and also Lance Armstrong, who was training at the Olympic Training Center during part of his high school years. He is not in our hall of fame by choice because he says he never called Colorado Springs home. Lon Cheney, the scary movie actor back in the early 1900s, grew up here too. He was the title character in the silent films Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera. He is known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces” and the bar at one of the local theatres is named for him as well.

    Oh and anyone interested in physics might recognize the town as being the home to Nikola Tesla for about a year (played by David Bowe in The Prestige) as he did some experiments.

    2. Used EBS a few times for tornado and blizzard warnings.

    3. My first word was Dad. Shortly followed by cheese.

    posted by sm on 1-22-2010 at 6:38 pm

  170. @Whit–another flosser in Gainesville, GA?! Are you still here? We moved here ~5 years ago from N. VA for my DH’s job, and really like it (and the lake)

    My original hometown (small town AL) was famous for nothing, and now the claim to fame is that Ambre from Rock of Love 2 went to HS there. I graduated with her. No offense to her, but I think they were better off being famous for nothing :-/

    posted by ashleyrobin on 1-22-2010 at 6:41 pm

  171. san leandro, california. where ghirardelli chocolate is REALLY made. headquarters of jansport backpacks and otis spunkmeyer cookies. in the abc stores in hawaii they sell these dried fruits from san leandro. and remember hugh grant’s whore? she’s from san leandro.

    posted by dk on 1-22-2010 at 6:57 pm

  172. Moved away 12 years ago, but I was born and raised in Waco, Texas, better known as the birthplace of Dr. Pepper, Steve Martin, Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Love Hewitt and a bunch of other people who had the sense to get out while they still had a chance. When the Branch Davidians moved out to Mt. Carmel, they sold their old compound and it ended up becoming a private school. I went to high school there. There are tunnels (now sealed up) under the building and the library housed a mosaic on the floor of a clock that supposedly pointed to the time of apocalypse. The street the school is located on is Mt. Carmel drive and across the street is the Davidian church . . . I guess those who didn’t “Branch” off still go there.

    posted by MP on 1-22-2010 at 6:57 pm

  173. Re: #1

    Kelsey – My husband is from Milan, Ohio! I’ve never actually been to any of the Thomas Edison museums there, but I got very excited when you mentioned Norwalk though. I was like, I know where that is!

    Re: #3

    My dad worked in construction when I was little and my first word was “backhoe.”

    posted by Christine on 1-22-2010 at 7:02 pm

  174. My hometown of Cross Plains, Texas is the former residence of Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, and King Kull among other deadly characters. His family home is a museum, and an annual Barabarian Festival is held to honor our most famous citizen. Scott C.

    posted by Scott C. on 1-22-2010 at 7:05 pm

  175. 1. Kennesaw, GA- the site of a Civil War battle (Kennesaw Mountain), the city where the theft of the train “The General” during the Civil War occurred (it’s now in a museum downtown), (Buster Keaton’s film “The General” is about it, by the way), the city that actually made it a law that people must have gun and ammunition at their house, and the city where a disgruntled ex-Penske employee shot and killed people a couple of weeks ago.

    posted by Kady on 1-22-2010 at 7:07 pm

  176. My hometown is Cincinnati. Where should I start for Cincinnati’s claim to fame? First professional baseball team, Cincinnati Reds. James Brown got his start in Cincinnati. Jerry Springer was the Mayor of Cincinnati. Larry Flint, Nick Lachey, Peter Frampton, Ted Turner, Dan Patrick (ESPN), George Clooney, Steven Speilberg, Hal Sparks, The Naked Cowboy, Kevin Youkilis were all either born in Cincinnati or call Cincinnati home. The movie Rain Man. The radio station WOXY.com, originally 97.7 woxy. WKRP in Cincinnati is not a real radio station, by the way. Home of Procter and Gamble, check your home, I am sure you have several P&G products. I am sure you all have eaten several Chiquita bananas, based out of Cincinnati. Oh man, I could go on for hours. I LOVE this city.

    posted by Chris on 1-22-2010 at 7:27 pm

  177. 1. My hometown is Brook Park, OH (suburb of Cleveland). Where to begin – we have Brookpark Road, home of strip clubs and hookers. Billy Hufsey was born there. Our former mayor was found wandering naked in front of a barbershop. Oh, and parts of Cleveland Hopkins airport is in Brook Park or they purchased part of Brook Park to build it.

    2. I now live just south of Dayton, OH and I saw the EBS a few years ago when there was a tornado at the Dayton Mall. We actually have many tornado watches (warnings? the one without the actual tornados) and they do the EBS on the radio stations around here. Freaks me out.

    posted by Clevegal42 on 1-22-2010 at 7:55 pm

  178. Vancouver, BC
    Hollywood North as it’s most fondly called. Home of a bunch of Hollywood stars.
    Vancouver BC always ranks within top 10 of the most liveable cities in the world and ranks within top 5 of cleanest city in the world. Together, it ranks us top 10 over priced city in the world.

    oh and yea. we’re hosting the 2010 WInter Olympic and Paralympic games. no biggie.

    posted by van couver on 1-22-2010 at 8:08 pm

  179. Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fawn Lieobwitz, Animal House. need I say more?

    posted by Dan M. on 1-22-2010 at 8:15 pm

  180. 1. I grew up in Waterford, Michigan, the hometown of Kirk Gibson and Pat LaFontaine. Gibson’s dad taught math at my high school, and LaFontaine went to my junior high (2 years younger).

    2. I got nothing.

    3. Our daughter’s first word was “shish” (fish). Mine was “Okay,” which I would repeat over and over again.

    posted by Tammy on 1-22-2010 at 8:34 pm

  181. 1) I call two places home. The first is Nashville. Y’know, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Jack White, and a million other people, places, and things. Second would be Pittsburgh, PA. Uh, Jeff Goldblum? Whoopie. Tons of movies are filmed there. My husband-that-doesn’t-know-he’s-my-husband-yet Robert Downey Jr. filmed there. (Swoon)

    posted by Zoe on 1-22-2010 at 8:37 pm

  182. Issaquah, WA

    - Home to Boehm’s Chocolates, which might not sound famous, but I tend to find it in the weirdest places when I travel.

    - I went to the same high School as Modest Mouse and supposedly Sir Mix-a-Lot went to our school

    - Costco has it’s world headquarters in our town

    Ted Bundy used to live there.

    2) I saw the EBS get used during a tornado in Texas, but we were already watching the news to know when to head towards the bathroom or underground.

    ReCaptcha – Thatches Politically

    posted by Liz N on 1-22-2010 at 8:38 pm

  183. Oh, yeah. Pittsburgh’s Monroeville mall housed the original Dawn of the Dead.

    posted by Zoe on 1-22-2010 at 8:39 pm

  184. Windham New York – Scott Adams of the Dilbert cartoons is from there

    posted by Kyle on 1-22-2010 at 8:51 pm

  185. I come from Bellport, New York originally, a small town of 2800 souls on the south shore of Long Island. It was a whaling port in days past. Bellport’s claim to fame: the ball bearing was invented there.

    posted by Steve R on 1-22-2010 at 9:06 pm

  186. Pittsburgh, CA

    Jack London would come to our town all those years ago.

    posted by Cecilia on 1-22-2010 at 9:13 pm

  187. My hometown’s claim to fame? A disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxsackievirus

    posted by MacBean on 1-22-2010 at 9:43 pm

  188. Let’s see… Sherman’s gift to Lincoln, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a few years back our sugar refinery caught fire and burned for days…Founder of the Girl Scouts lived here… We have an unexploded bomb in the waters off our coast… Paula Deen got her start here, and yes we still love her… Hmmm, I’m sure there’s lot’s more, but that’s all off the top of my head…. And in case ya’ll haven’t figured it out, it’s Savannah GA.

    posted by mrs.arno on 1-22-2010 at 9:56 pm

  189. My hometown, Deltona, FL, is home to Twiggy the Water-Skiing Squirrel

    posted by Tamahome Jenkins on 1-22-2010 at 10:00 pm

  190. My hometown is awesome Santa Clarita California, and there are a lot of movies that were filmed here!!! Check out Wikipedia, lists em all! Taylor Lautner lives here, so did William S Hart and WC Feilds!!! Santa Clarita rulez!

    posted by LOLOLLOLOLOLOLOL on 1-22-2010 at 10:06 pm

  191. Derry, NH was home to Robert Frost. He taught at my high school. In fact, it has been mentioned on this site before! Derry was also home to astronaut Alan Shepard.

    posted by JRD on 1-22-2010 at 10:16 pm

  192. My hometown is Canton, OH – home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, First Ladies National Historical Site, William McKinley Library/Museum/Memorial. Hometown of Marilyn Manson and Thurman Munson.

    posted by Courtney on 1-22-2010 at 10:47 pm

  193. My town (Montpelier, Ohio) has repeatedly “won” in a tasting competition and supposedly has the best-tasting tap water in the world. I think that’s a pretty silly contest to have, but .. hey, whatever works. We’re also the hometown of one of the actors on the Vampire Diaries (Roerig), but he’s kinda a dick, so none of us care.

    The emergency system thing is always spewing forth tornado warnings and winter weather warnings here.

    My daughter’s first name was “Momma” as far as I can remember. That or “Steppy” which is what she called my mom (whose name is Stephany).

    posted by Bunny on 1-22-2010 at 10:54 pm

  194. 1) My original hometown (Natchitoches, LA): Location of Steel Magnolias, and countless plantations….also home of Kate Chopin, famous writer.

    2) Growing up in the South, I’ve actually witnessed the Broadcast system alert me to possible and impending tornados, severe thunderstorms, flash flooding, and of course, hurricanes.

    3)My son’s first proper noun was Mike, as in Mike the Tiger (LSU mascot)…..he has good taste! :)

    posted by KimW. on 1-22-2010 at 10:56 pm

  195. Hometown: Garden City, MI.
    Claim to fame: Very first Kmart

    My son’s first noun was also our dog’s name. His second was the cat’s name.

    posted by Brad Williams on 1-22-2010 at 11:05 pm

  196. My hometown Springfield,MO is know for a few insignificant things, amongst others it is:
    - The birthplace and home town of Brad Pitt
    -The International headquarters of the Assembly of God church, and
    -The birthplace of Cashew Chicken!!

    Our oldest daugher as a baby had hardly said her first word when Christmas arrived and we took her arround to visit all of her relatives. We sat her down in front of her gifts and right then in front of everyone she uttered “sh-t”! And seeing that she got a reaction she proceeded to say it over and over all day long wherever we went. I recall my wife and I really cleaned up our vocabulary after that.

    posted by Jon on 1-22-2010 at 11:08 pm

  197. 1. I’m right next to Denville – i’m from Wharton, NJ. Our claims to fame:
    Cyndi Lauper Video Time after Time filmed here and home to the *original* superman, Kirk Allyn.

    2. I believe the Blizzard of 96 (i was a senior) had real emergency broadcasts

    posted by Jen on 1-22-2010 at 11:13 pm

  198. Illustr8: I currently live in Austin, and well, Round Rock is also the birthplace and home of DELL (as in the computers)…..Michael Dell still lives here….

    posted by KimW. on 1-22-2010 at 11:14 pm

  199. Everybody’s favorite basketball coach, Bobby Knight, grew up in my hometown of Orrville, Ohio.

    posted by Laurie Beth on 1-22-2010 at 11:26 pm

  200. 1- I was born in Sarasota, FL, the home of John and Charles Ringling (as in Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus), the town where PeeWee Herman got arrested for wanking in a porn theater, also the place in which the first suicide on live TV happened.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck

    Different celebrities have or had homes there I’ve heard about: Lucille Ball, Monica Seles, the “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Brian Johnson (of AC/DC), to name a few.

    Where I live now- Greenville, SC, home of Shoeless Joe Jackson, and birthplace of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

    posted by dooflotchie on 1-22-2010 at 11:47 pm

  201. Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains; Johnson City, TN is called little Chicago, due to its notorious bootlegging runs by Al Capone’s Cronies. He even had a residence here called Montrose place. We also have some local waterways that a pirate from the Jean Paul LeBecque buried his treasure near, that used to be connected to the Atlantic (Nolichucky River)

    posted by david on 1-22-2010 at 11:59 pm

  202. RE@ #1. My hometown has the lowest zip code in the country (01001).

    posted by Matt on 1-23-2010 at 12:11 am

  203. 1.) Cranford NJ : various commercials, tv shows (Ed comes to mind), movies (Garden State, Far From Heaven, Guess Who, etc) but our best was definitely the third season of Adventures of Pete and Pete. We’re also quoted in a Simpsons episode, where Homer tries to find funny headlines to send in to Kent Brockman. ‘Cranford Man Missing. What’s he missing? His pants?!’

    2.) Mostly from hurricanes and if I recall correctly a tornado in 1990.

    3.) Cat.

    posted by katie on 1-23-2010 at 12:30 am

  204. My town is famous for about 4 things:

    1)It is the corn capital of Canada.
    2)The caulking gun was invented here.
    3)B.I.F Naked is from here.
    4)Incredible, unsurpassed natural beauty.

    the town?

    Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada

    posted by CamDaMan on 1-23-2010 at 12:45 am

  205. my hometown is high point, north carolina. it is known as “the furniture capital of the world”. oh and fantasia barrino went to my high school before she dropped out.

    posted by caroline on 1-23-2010 at 1:44 am

  206. Gus, I’m from Glens Falls too!! Also home of Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Dave Lapointe. Rachel Ray was born here, though she lived in lake George. And amusingly, my recaptch is athletes the (amusing since two names I mentioned are athletes).

    posted by MLD on 1-23-2010 at 1:56 am

  207. My hometown of Tyler, TX was in the movie Bruno…I think that’s bad.

    My first word as a baby was Tang. That’s what my mom gave us to drink.

    posted by CashandSloan on 1-23-2010 at 2:07 am

  208. I am from Fairview, OK, which is not really famous for anything, but there is a scene in the movie Twister set here. It is when they are watching the movie at the drive-in, however none of the places shown are actually in Fairview…

    posted by Soonersnic on 1-23-2010 at 2:09 am

  209. Chesterland,Ohio we have a Mental Floss store!

    posted by jerzymon on 1-23-2010 at 2:58 am

  210. My hometown of Willoughby, OH was the location of the first automatic traffic signal in the world. Not the first mechanical traffic signal; those were around, but they had to have an operator at the intersection who ran them. Also, not a traffic LIGHT (that was in nearby Cleveland); this signal gave instructions via mechanical arms, like a semaphore.

    posted by Benjamininja on 1-23-2010 at 3:00 am

  211. In the town i grew up in (Mitchell, SD) used the emergency broadcast system to warn people of severe weather.

    posted by Heather on 1-23-2010 at 7:42 am

  212. 1. Fairbanks, Alaska is famous for being a great place to see the aurora. And it has the farthest north Denny’s, Harley Davidson’s, and shopping mall in the US.

    Oh, and a large part of “Into the Wild” was filmed there.

    3. My nephew’s first word was “Echo”, the name of the family cat.
    My first word was “cookie” and my sister’s was “juice”. I guess we were hungry kids. :)

    posted by BlueAloe on 1-23-2010 at 8:27 am

  213. Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. from my hometown of Cedartown, GA was an actor, but is most noted as the voice of Winnie the Pooh.

    posted by JDL on 1-23-2010 at 9:38 am

  214. Binghamton,NY area

    Birhtplace of:
    Endicott Johnson shoe factory
    I.B.M
    Link Simulator
    Raymond Corp. – Fork Lifts

    Known as Carousel Capital of the World, Home of the B.C. Open on the PGA Tour. Notables are: Rod Serling,Paul Reiser,Johnny Hart,Richard Deacon, Jack Sharkey,Billy Martin.

    Triplets minor league, Yankees affiliate Noted players were: Whitey Ford,Thurman Munson,Joe Pepitone.

    A note on George f. Johnson. He was the first to initiate an 8 hr. day & 40 hr. work week, free medical,profit sharing and paid 30% more than other companies.His employees voted 5 to 1 against unions & no one was laid off during the depression. He was so well admired that 40,000 people attended his funeral

    posted by Mark on 1-23-2010 at 10:55 am

  215. i live in long beach, ca. a lot of famous people went to cal state long beach but i forget whom…
    recaptha: quauery and… quauery and what?

    posted by Cassy on 1-23-2010 at 11:22 am

  216. 1. Kannapolis, NC – Home of Dale Earnhardt, not that he’d be all that crazy about admitting it if he was still around. His mama is still here and his daddy is buried not far from me. I also used to live in China Grove which was named in a song that I can’t remember for the life of me right now.
    2. We get Amber and Silver Alerts and on rare occasions, tornado warnings.
    3. My son’s first word was “baba”. He called his sister that when he followed her around. We still call her that.

    posted by Floosyjane on 1-23-2010 at 11:58 am

  217. Grew up in Grand Saline, Tx. We had salt flats where earlier Native Americans harvested salt. Now the area is riddled with salt mines/shafts from Morton Salt Co.

    posted by cdk on 1-23-2010 at 12:09 pm

  218. #1

    My hometown’s claim to fame is it’s ice cream store, the Farson Merc in Farson, WY. They call it “Home of the Big Cone” and it’s certainly correct…a small is a large and a large is a mountain. We’re pretty famous throughout the state. Actually, I know a few people who’ve gotten on airplanes and had conversations with people from pretty much everywhere who’ve been to the Merc. It’s our hometown relic still, even though it closed for about four or five years.

    posted by Chelsey Kay on 1-23-2010 at 12:25 pm

  219. 1. I’m orginally from Wauchula, Florida. That is where they had the baby swap case back in the 70s.

    2. When I was living outside of Charleston, SC, they made the announcement on the Emergency Broadcast System about a tornado. It would have been in 1998.

    posted by Mary on 1-23-2010 at 12:32 pm

  220. 1. South Bend, Indiana is known for Studebaker and the University of Notre Dame. John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, also coached at South Bend Central High School.

    posted by Cait on 1-23-2010 at 1:08 pm

  221. Maple Shade NJ…The town was rumored to have been in the guiness book of world records for the most liquor licenses per square mile. Is it true?… no idea

    The EBS was broadcast over radio and TV on 09-11-01.

    posted by CJ on 1-23-2010 at 1:51 pm

  222. #1 Springfield,MO hometown of Brad Pitt
    #2 Live in Fort Worth now…tornado hit and it was scary hearing actual emergency info

    posted by Beth on 1-23-2010 at 2:21 pm

  223. EAST LOS ANGELES!!! nuff said

    posted by Ramon on 1-23-2010 at 2:21 pm

  224. Ron Jeremy graduated from my High School. In the early days of the silver screen, many silent movie actors lived there.

    It’s part of NYC, so it’s kind of hard to pick one small thing about Bayside.

    posted by hannah on 1-23-2010 at 2:35 pm

  225. my hometown of Brantford,Ontario,Canada is known as the telephone city as Alexander Graham Bell lived and invented the telephone here. It is also the birthplace of Wayne Gretzky…whose family still lives here. Late comedian Phil Hartman is also from B-town. Our downtown(as is…no sets required) was the abandoned city in the movie Silent Hill. Also…i grew up in Kitchener Ontario and know Lennox Lewis in high school( he was “Junior” to us).

    posted by squ1nt on 1-23-2010 at 5:09 pm

  226. My hometown is Bryan, Texas. Birthplace of journalist Linda Ellerbee and hometown for a bunch of football players and coaches. It is very near Texas A&M, which unfortunately most people associate with the Bonfire tragedy in 1999.

    My dad’s hometown, Wheelock, TX, is the real-life setting of one of Steven Spielberg’s first movies The Sugarland Express. Supposedly it was also filmed in Brazos & Robertson counties.

    posted by tamden on 1-23-2010 at 5:24 pm

  227. 1. I am from West Chester, PA. MTV has made the town popular because Bam Margera and his fellow Jackass’s are from the area. Needless to say, “townies” aren’t very proud of Bam and he often becomes the center of jokes for his idiocy.

    posted by nan192 on 1-23-2010 at 6:11 pm

  228. 1- Site of movie “Honeydripper”
    2-No
    3- I don’t know. Probably “Becky” or “Amy”. My cousin Xada’s first name that she pronounced was “Sara”. (And it was usually to boss me around.)

    posted by Sara in AL on 1-23-2010 at 6:27 pm

  229. 1) San Antonio, TX.

    Not just the Alamo city! We also have the largest MLK Jr parade in the nation. A number of famous people are from here: Carol Burnett, Summer Glau (Firefly, Serenity) , Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls, Supernatural), and James Roday (Psych) just to name a few (there are a bunch of others, but I couldn’t verify all of them as some just live here now and were not from SA)

    posted by BookPrincess on 1-23-2010 at 6:57 pm

  230. Carville, Louisiana was founded by ancestors of James Carville, the political analyst. It was also the historical site of the only center for the study and treatment of Hansen’s Disease (commonly called leprosy) in the contiguous 48 states until very recently, when the hospital’s major operations moved to Baton Rouge. The site in Carville, at the Indian Camp plantation grounds, is still there and houses a museum as well as government outfits.

    posted by Rob on 1-23-2010 at 7:42 pm

  231. I live in Eaton Rapids, MI. The only Eaton Rapids in the world I do believe.

    posted by Larissa on 1-23-2010 at 9:42 pm

  232. My hometown is famous for only one thing–in the early 90s, a guy murdered his entire family and fled toward Georgia. When he was caught, he claimed the devil was riding with him, telling him what to do.

    Unrelated but amusing captcha: Senator excesses!

    posted by Ryan on 1-23-2010 at 10:21 pm

  233. the place where timothy murphy called home and was buried. he was a sniper in the american revolution who single handedly turned the tide of the war by assassinating a general in the battle of saratoga. If it wasn’t for him, we would all be speaking british right now….

    posted by agmucsg on 1-23-2010 at 10:33 pm

  234. My hometown is Wind Lake, WI. My mom tells me that pro wrestlers in the 1970s owned a house up the street, and occasionally there would be a cookout with all the big names in pro wrestling at the time (including Milwaukee’s own “The Crusher”) in attendance. On another note, a little southwest on the main road through the W-L and you’ll end up in Burlington, WI, home of NFL qb Tony Romo.

    posted by RIchard Y on 1-24-2010 at 4:05 am

  235. 1. Richard Feynman grew up here!

    posted by of Far Rockaway, NY on 1-24-2010 at 11:01 am

  236. my hometown is Petaluma CA
    We’re “famous” for many things!

    Lloyd Bridges & Winona Ryder (only she was Winona Horowitz when I went to Jr High with her) are both from here.
    The town hosts the WOrld Wrist Wrestling Championships – well – it used to, no idea if they still do
    AND the Ugly Dog COntest.
    In addition to that, I think there is some claim to fame about being the egg basket of the world.
    AND there are been several movies filmed partially in town everything from Howard the Duck to Explorers to Peggy Sue got married. Sometimes I’ve seen stock footage of the downtown used on random TV shows, like when Quantum Leap was on.

    posted by just me on 1-24-2010 at 11:32 am

  237. my hometown of hamilton, nj is the location of the post office where the anthrax was traced back to in 2001. the post office was shut down for a long time and all my mail was irradiated and put in labeled plastic bags before it was finally delivered, months late.

    posted by Scott on 1-24-2010 at 12:25 pm

  238. My hometown, Moultonborough, NH, is “famous” for being the home of Castle in the Clouds and for being the hometown of Olympians Wolfgang Moser (Sydney Olympics, Mens Crew Team. His mother was my Latin teacher. She went to the Olympics and brought us back candy, haha. That’s as close to Australia and the Olympics as I’ll ever get!) and Hannah Hardaway (Salt Lake City Olympics, Skier). Also, Robert Frost summered there.

    posted by Bailey86 on 1-24-2010 at 2:24 pm

  239. I live in Manassas, VA, which other than having two Civil War battlefields (including the first battle of the Civil War), was also the home of Lorena and John Bobbitt. More people tend to know about the second one, I’ve found.

    posted by Becky on 1-24-2010 at 2:44 pm

  240. 1. I’m not surprised not to see Bluemont, VA on here, but we are on the side of Mt. Weather, which is a not-so-secret hiding place for government members in case of emergency.
    Our town was also used in an episode of the West Wing to represent the character of the president’s hometown, which was supposed to be in NH, since they film in DC, a quick hop over to Bluemont was much easier.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weather

    posted by IM on 1-24-2010 at 3:23 pm

  241. I live in Clinton, MD. Name was changed from Surrattsville after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the involvement of the Surratts in the plot. John Wilkes Booth stopped for assistance with his broken leg just down the street from my house.

    Not sure if this is true but I’ve heard that congress made a rule that no town is allowed to be called by the Surratt name. The high school and library still bear the name Surrattsville though.

    posted by Riptide on 1-24-2010 at 4:05 pm

  242. New. England. Patriots. Gillette stadium is right through the woods from my house in good ol’ Foxboro. I know many people hate the dynasty (er…of last decade) but I LOVE them!

    posted by Meg on 1-24-2010 at 5:40 pm

  243. I live in Bowling Green Kentucky,we have two claims to fame I know Of. We are the Home of The Chevrolet Corvette Assembly Plant(the only one in the world) our second which is semi famous is,Director John Carpenter(Halloween) either went to school here or was born here,if you follow the movie he mentions a few streets I drive up and down everyday,The same Goes for the movie “The Fog”I think he use these two streets Russellville Rd and Morgantown Rd. I say these two because they are close to WKU campus , the Hospital u see in Halloween still exists,it sits dead center of bowling green on a hill called “Hospital Hill”

    posted by shaun on 1-24-2010 at 7:58 pm

  244. @Mother Chat: Didn’t Sam Walter Foss write that poem about “the House by the side o the road”? That’s a biggie for funerals…

    #1 I am from Luverne, AL… HOME OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST PEANUT BOIL!!!! Also, THE FRIENDLIEST CITY IN THE SOUTH! We were actually in Guiness for a bit with the first part, I think… but that last one is hard to quantitate, I s’pose…

    posted by Dara on 1-24-2010 at 8:50 pm

  245. I call a couple places home, but one is also known as the home of Jeffrey Dahmer. (yech)

    posted by Hyacinth on 1-24-2010 at 10:21 pm

  246. 1) My hometown is Oklahoma City. I wish it were famous for something other than a national tragedy or people still riding around on horses and in covered wagons. I also wish people who are not from Oklahoma would realise that only one of these is actually a fact about my city. :)

    2) I’ve definitely seen the EBS used (just a few weeks ago) for an Amber Alert. It was super creepy, especially since I was watching a DVRed show and it still came through.

    posted by April on 1-24-2010 at 11:42 pm

  247. 1. Mc Hammer lives in my town of Tracy, California.
    3. My daughter’s firt real noun was cup

    posted by Lauren on 1-25-2010 at 1:48 am

  248. Pembroke Pines, Florida: Home of the most dangerous traffic intersection in the nation… well at least in 2001.

    posted by Janie on 1-25-2010 at 10:16 am

  249. 1) Red Bank, New Jersey is where the world record was set for longest distance ever tap danced.

    It’s also where half of Kevin Smith’s movies take place. That’s pretty irritating.

    posted by Abby on 1-25-2010 at 11:57 am

  250. 1. Tarpon Springs, FL. Known for Sponge Divers, and having the highest percentage of Greek Americans in the US. Andrew Zimmern did one of his Bizarre Foods things here. On Jan 6th, a bunch of people dive into ice cold waters for Epiphany to get a cross that’s thrown in. I think the only famous person we had living here was Bernie Higgins of “Key Largo” fame.

    3. My first word was french fry.

    posted by woodsidhe on 1-25-2010 at 1:07 pm

  251. 1. I am from Conneaut, Ohio, and there is nothing that it is famous for…the only thing that I can think of is that the nickname is “The sharpest point in the state of Ohio.” I go to school in another small town in Ohio (Ada) which is known for the Wilson football factory.

    3. It’s not really a word, but the first thing I said was “ucky”

    posted by Carly on 1-25-2010 at 5:29 pm

  252. i grew up in laurel, MD. we’ve got the old laurel racetrack…plus the 9-11 terrorists lived there briefly. fun.

    as for #2…i’ve seen it used a few times for tornados. the only problem is that it blocks out the local channel completely. chances are, if there is a severe enough storm for the EBS to come on, i’m already glued to the TV watching the local weather reports. usually they have more accurate information anyways.

    posted by sarah on 1-25-2010 at 5:34 pm

  253. Fort Collins CO also is the place where long-term hostage Tom Sutherland came home to.

    posted by Pat on 1-30-2010 at 3:11 pm

  254. Kristen Haglund, Miss America 2008, is from my hometown. Other than that, nothing special has happened here.

    posted by Mayo on 1-31-2010 at 5:44 pm

  255. I’m a little late in joining this topic, but here goes… My hometown of Auburn, WA, was the long-time residence of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway. Auburn is extremely close to the places he picked up and buried his victims. SO reassuring to know I grew up just a couple of miles from the Green River Killer’s house!

    posted by Mary W. on 2-5-2010 at 12:40 pm

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