Midway Avenue: Cul-De-Sac Extraordinaire

When I was growing up, we described a street with a dead end in ways that may have been less than clear. For instance, my parents lived in the house "near the top of the hill 'round the circle on the left of a dead end street." That's how we described Romney Court, the one and only no-thru-traffic street in Landover, Maryland.

When I learned that Romney Court was properly articulated as a "cul-de-sac," I started using the French word (which literally means the bottom of a sack) often when giving directions. The trouble was, most of my friends didn't know what I was talking about.

"Your Mama lives on a cue-de-who?"

For "clarity" sake, I went back to my former, less enlightened description and directions to where the Russells lived. "Take a right (or left) off Greenleaf onto Romney, go up the street (it was on a knoll), 'round the circle and stop at the green house on your right."

What amazes me more than the cut-off streets, or streets with no passageway, one way in and one way out, is that I've lived on one for most of my adult life. There was Romney Court, Springdale Road, Clearwater Creek, and here - Midway Avenue.

I've spent most of my life living on streets with one way in and the same way out! There aren't many of them. Yet I've managed to love this house I live on that sits on a street that borders on a thru way on one end, and a fenced in horse pasture on the other.

I remember Midway Avenue before it was Midway Avenue. The year was 1992. The county commission had this idea to rename the street Midway. I could comprehend why they called it Midway. We are located in the middle of the county, with equal distance traveled between two cities. I questioned the commission's wisdom when they tacked the word "Avenue" on with Midway. Avenue? How could they possibly call this one-eighth of a mile drive from one end to the horse pasture an avenue? According to my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, an avenue is defined as a "street, especially a wide principal one running at right angles or parallel to others." There's nothing principal about our street. The houses aren't fancy. There are no businesses here, except a few home-based ones. There are no famous or important folks living here.

I remember ranting and raving to my neighbor for an hour when the street name was changed to Midway Avenue. For some strange reason, I was furious. He thought the street renaming was amusing; he thought my reaction to it was hilarious.

It's been seventeen years since then. The street name has changed again, but on some maps, it is still Midway Avenue.

Our street is located less than a half a mile from a U. S. Highway. The road that connects us with that highway also connects with the next city on the other end. Over the years, the connector has become more popular as a shortcut to a major distribution center and other popular spots. But sometimes, passers through get their directions mixed up and turn down - you guessed it , Midway Avenue looking for their destination at the other end. They're expecting a street with no outlet to just magically grow one, I guess.

Like the Ford 1500 that turned up in here one Saturday night and barreled toward the end of the street at 40 to 50 miles per hour. When he got close enough to see the pavement disappearing quickly, and a fence looming before him, he slammed brakes for dear life's sake. Either that, or the truck and all of its passengers would have been grazing along beside the horses.

My personal favorite Midway Avenue case of mistaken identity happened one Sunday evening. A forty-six passenger church bus turned up in here and rode all the way down to the horse pasture. It took them a while to get out of there. I guess the bus driver had to review his map again, or call someone via cell phone and holler "HELP!"

All I know is, several minutes later, they slowly backed out of Midway while the bus shrieked BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . . . . . .

If the horses in the pasture at the end of Midway Avenue were anything like the birds on the Windex commercial, they'd be sporting hooves' high fives and neighing, "there goes another one."
BEEP. . . .BEEP. . . .BEEP.