What’s the name of that street?

When Alan Paton wrote “there is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills,” I searched for its name without luck.  Now there is another road whose name I am looking for.  This road leads from Fillow Street to Old Rock Lane in Norwalk.  So, to find out its name along with Myška, my favorite walking companion, I set out to ask those whose homes border to let me know what to call it.  “Princes Pine,” is its name said a young man we met as we passed the above sign marking its Old Rock Lane end point.

“I am a prince who fell in love with Megan.  But then she ended up marrying that scoundrel, Harry.  So now like princes everywhere I am pining for the return of my long-lost love.”  And then he broke down in tears.

So sorry, we said as we moved on down the street to another property where we met a young woman.

“What that guy told you is wrong,” she said.  “The name of this street is Princess Pine.  We women are pining for the day men on our planet will learn how to behave sensibly and well.

“That seems to be an appropriate name for a street in our locality and our country,” we replied as we waved goodbye and headed to a home on the other side of the street.

“What do you call this road?” we called out to a man standing in the yard.

“Prince’s Pine, of course,” he replied.  “When I first moved here there were pine trees everywhere.  But then people started chopping them down.   So, I called a meeting of my neighbors and told them: ‘Look here, I am a prince, and this is my property, and these are my trees.  I am going to mark each of them Prince’s Pine and anyone caught cutting down a tree so marked will suffer dire consequence.’”

Thank you for that explanation, we said, as we gingerly stepped away and headed home pining for a definitive answer to our question so we could let you know more about the street we had just walked down.

Paul Cantor