Unscientific Survey: What Do You Call It?
What’s that old Petula Clark song? “When you’re alone and life is making you weary, you can always go…”
To the ’Ville!
How the answers stacked up.
At least that’s the way it’s sung in Swarthmore, where a plurality of respondents to Unscientific Survey No. 4 reported using that name for the central part of town. It was a close race, however, with solid support for (in order), Town, Downtown (that’s the song!), the oddly corporate Town Center, Uptown, and the rather quaint The Village.
Some reader comments:
We’re relatively new to Swarthmore and attempting to transition to “the ‘Ville”...but “town” just flows better for us! Let’s walk to town, bike to town; I’m heading into town to pick up X...
I’m a Swarthmore College staff member who lives in Swarthmore. I believe I picked up the “’Ville” designation from the students.
The borough.
When I was growing up there, 1940s and 50s, we called it “uptown.” —Susan Spencer
Any true Swarthmorean knows it is uptown. So NOT the ’Ville. Puh-leeze!
Up town, not uptown
I used to call it “the ’Ville” when I was a student at the college, but when I returned to the area 10 years later, started calling it “town” to fit in with my neighbors.
I’ve been calling it the ’Ville since my time as a student, but now I’ll also say downtown, which I picked up while living in Ohio for a few years, where the center of town is always “downtown,” no matter how small the town is. —Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya
Somehow it’s changed from “uptown” when I was a kid to “downtown” as an adult, though I’m pretty sure it hasn’t moved.
And by the way, we found ourselves slightly flummoxed by the spelling of the winning entry. Is it Ville or ’Ville? And if it does start with an apostrophe, what’s missing before the V?
Anyone with thoughts on the matter, please feel free to send them on to byagoda@udel.edu — or via a letter to the editor of the Swarthmorean.
Ben Yagoda is the Swarthmorean’s survey editor.
Unscientific Survey No. 5
For reasons not necessary to state, we’ve all been spending a lot more time than usual at home lately. Unscientific Surveys wants to help this time pass a bit more pleasantly, so we’re soliciting recommendations on fantastic streaming TV series, novels, podcasts, etc.
