GhostseTroll's Journal: Friendly residents on mean streets

Neighborhood road names include 'Keepa Way,' 'Getta Way'

Wednesday, October 9, 2002 Posted: 11:20 AM EDT (1520 GMT)
Neighborhood road names include 'Keepa Way,' 'Getta Way'

MOCKSVILLE, North Carolina (AP) -- Look at the street signs and you might think people in Davie County don't like visitors.

There's Staya Way and Getta Way, Keepa Way and Outatha Way. But the people who live on the streets say they're friendly.

"When we named the road, we didn't even think it was odd," said Keretha Shore, who lives on Staya Way. "We just thought it was funny."

The Shores' former neighbor, David Plott, suggested the name when the county mandated several years ago that all roads have names so that emergency vehicles could find them. Other neighbors liked it, too.

Briggett Ferrell said she hoped the name might discourage people who sometimes park in her family's back yard and fish in the lake behind their house. But her son, Joey, said the signs don't discourage anyone.

"People always laugh," he said. "People ask if we're joking: 'You're lying to me, right?'"

All four roads are private, so property owners along the roads had naming rights. As long as the names didn't offend anyone and didn't duplicate any existing names, they were OK, said Tim Barba of the Davie County Planning Department.

Rick Franklin, who named Getta Way, said he doesn't want people to think he's antisocial. Just last weekend, he had 160 people over for chicken stew, he said.

"I ain't put up the gate yet," he said.