Talk:Podunk

The accompanying article was the subject of a deletion debate at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Podunk. The decision was delete; this was implemented by merging into Podunk (place), and renaming that article to Podunk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerzy (talk • contribs) 04:11, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

in Wallace Stegner's book "The Gathering of Zion, the Story of the Mormon Trail", he quotes a passage in a letter written in late May of 1845 by Irene Hascal Pomeroy wherein she arrived in Nauvoo Illinois expecting it "would look like poordunk or something. " — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:100F:B006:1EEE:C470:375:7EB3:8DB2 (talk) 19:26, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Geographic associations

Podunk, New York

Podunk came into existence about 1800. According to Lydia Sears in an article written by Peggy Gallagher, "it was a rough, tough crossroads." Located on Bolter Creek, it was a small manufacturing community and at its peak had a population of about 100 people. Podunk got its name from the way the rushing waters of Bolter Creek descended on a sawmill wheel. Manufactured in the small community were: tubs, churns, barrels, window sashes, blinds, doors, custom built carriages, bricks, and according to some accounts, canal boats.

Two incidents made local history in Podunk. A vigilante group in the 1880s, wearing white caps and masks, tied the Town Highway superintendent to a tree and gave him a thrashing for beating his wife. On St. Patrick's Day in 1888 there occurred murder and arson in Podunk. Harry Wooden, who passed away in 1970, wrote this about the murder and Podunk on June 11, 1969:

["Mead Hill was named from a couple named Mead that lived where the John Johnstons now live. His wife had only one arm but her husband drove a nail into a stick of wood so she could fasten a potato on it and peel it.

"Dicky Mason and his wife lived at the foot of Mead Hill (approx. where the Ozzie Heila ski shop is today). They saved two hundred dollars which they kept in a tin can. They could not count money so they had a man by the name of Barber count it for them. A meeting was held at Podunk one night. Barber thought the Meads would be there so he could get their money. As it happened they were home, but he was going to have the money anyway. He killed Mrs. Mason with a stick of wood and thought he killed Dicky, rolled him up in a rug and set him afire, also the house. Dicky crawled out. My father (Fred Wooden) and my uncle (Milt Cuffman) were the first ones there. Dicky told them what happened. My father and uncle overtook Barber before he got to Trumansburg. He got 20 years in jail, was out as a free man; he was a model prisoner. He made beautiful boxes of wood but could never have made a living at it.

The race is still there that carries the water to the mill that was below the house where Walter Ploss used to live (VanOrden?) There are parts of the old mill stone built into the fireplace of this house. My uncle (Milt Cuffman) in Podunk was a great steam engineer. He ran the steam engine that ran the dynamo that made the first electricity for Trumansburg. The building is still there. He ran the steam engine for the silk mill in Trumansburg. For several years he never owned a horse and couldn't ride a bicycle so he walked to the silk mill and blew the whistle at seven every morning. It could be heard 10 miles with the wind. I have seen the steam engine in this mill. The balance wheel was about four feet high, the face about two and one half wide, it turned so slow you could almost follow it with your hand and no noise whatsoever, the exhaust was piped outside.

Some great men were raised in Podunk. My half uncle, Charlie Smith, never had much of an education, but became a big boss in Morse Chain works."

Norma Swartwood provided us with this description of a log house, taken from a History of Three Counties, p. 170:

"They lived in a log house which . . . fronted toward the (riverlake) and the road ran between it and the (river­lake). It had two square rooms; it was 'the best house in town'; it was built of logs filled in with bits of wood and 'mudded'. A square hole in the outer wall for light, but, lacking sash or glass, would occasionally let in cold also. Split pine logs, hewed pretty smoothly, made the floor; there was a wide hearthstone, and sufficiently high chimney­back of stone, with an opening in the roof of ample dimensions, and above it a chimney made of sticks, the crevices filled with clay and 'mudded'; a wooden fastening on the door, with the 'latchstring out', honest welcome presiding at the threshhold, peace and hope at the hearthstone, and genuine hospitality at the board."

-Carrie Martin

There is a chapter on Podunk in the book This way to Podunk, written by Harold Jansen, published in 1954 by Vantage Press. The chapter interviews Milt Cuffman, the Mayor of Podunk, and addresses the Mason murders in some detail. The remainder of the work comprises stories from around the region of Ithaca and the Finger Lakes.--Daniel Tapio (talk) 06:14, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Other Ulysses communities:

Halseyville

Jacksonville

Krums Corners

Trumansburg

Waterburg

Willow Creek

Podunk, Iowa

It is often referred to as Podunk, Iowa, even though there is no real town by that name.

I've removed the text above from the introductory paragraph. I've done a couple random searches and came up with an equal or larger number of hits for different states (e.g., Podunk, Nebraska). I have no doubt that some people say "Podunk, Iowa" but it doesn't seem to be more common than other states and doesn't, IMHO, belong in the article. If someone can source/reference this, I won't object it to be it re-added. —mako (talk•contribs) 05:59, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Hartford County, CT

A Google map shows the middle of the Podunk River, including Vintons Mill Pond, which appears to hold most of the water in the river at any moment. The river and its tributaries drain most of S Windsor, and a NW corner of East Hartford.
--Jerzy•t 16:55, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Popular Culture

I think the examples under popular culture can probably go. An unreleased beta of an NES game may be interesting to some but calling it "popular" seems a little off. I'm not convinced it, or the other two examples, are notable uses of term or phrase "podunk." —mako (talk•contribs) 06:03, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Not a coherant single article

Altho the ToP Dab i have added tries to temporarily weld the two senses together, that is insufficient, and in any case IMO it is not simply a matter of insufficient editing that has left this article with a lead secn to which at least 3 sections are non sequiturs:

1. the lead secn is about the typical use of the slang term
2. the secns about geographic names are a separate topic, even tho it could properly be referenced from the accompanying article (with a ToP dab, and a lk from a sentence, or 'graph or secn, that could attempt to address the idea of an "original Podunk" that inspired the popular usage. (My current guess is not the river in Hartford county via Mark Twain, but Podunk, NY, which could have inspired the mid-19th-century humorous series in a Buffalo paper, either directly or via the "Politician of Podunk" in the 1840 edition of the apparent Xmas annual The Token .... I will add my research on that, Read's "The Rationale of 'Podunk' ", the DARE, etc., at some point when it seems either fairly complete or unlikely to get there, to the article or a talk page, whichever seems appropriate by then.)

What i propose to do is twofold:

1. continue adding content to the existing article,
2. add to this page information that will clarify the history of the former division, which was obscured in the merge of Podunk (place) into the accompanying article. (I have experience doing merges while retaining a record of pre-merge history, so i might be an efficient clerk for that task -- unless those who watched the two articles develop care to offer up their recollection of edits that were made against one or the other of the two merged articles.)

What i anticipate is that the additional content will justify an article solely on the slang (even if it did not at the time of the AfD), and probably a Dab pg lk'g also to Podunk (people) (further material on their 3 clans in at least 2 identifiable parts of near-Hartford portion of the CT valley is at hand), to Podunk, Ulysses, New York , and to respective sections of articles on Podunks w/in the orbits of article-worthy places. Being able to trace the evolution, probably of a single article into two and via merger (back) into one, may be helpful in considering that.
--Jerzy•t 04:04 & 04:13, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

"Poor Dunk..." (and imitative) etymologies

_ _ I've removed

A 1915 book gives a folk etymology:

Among the places I passed through on this trip were Scrabbletown, Fog Hill, Larrywog, and Podunk. As to the last an Indian named Dunk once fell off a bridge there and drowned. The whites spoke of him as "poor Dunk," and the bridge as "poor Dunk's bridge," and so the vicinity in time came to be known as Podunk.

on the basis of only 1 non-WP G-hit on

"poor Dunk" podunk

If there is real etymological evidence, as there is for "Podunk", folk etymologies are encyclopedic only when widely believed. (I did note a similar one involving the name "Dunkle" or "Dunkly", and a story that water leaking from a dam made a supposed poh, dunk noise. I would subject them to similar tests.)
_ _ (BTW, lest that report be construed as an otherwise missed Podunk, there is a Larrywaug in Stockbridge, adjacent to Lee, so the Podunk involved is unlikely to be new to us.)
--Jerzy•t 06:44, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

References