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From page 1
delving deeper and deeper into the
past as the mystery thickens. As
of last week, we had confirmed
usage of the phrase as early as the
1940s.
But from San Diego comes an
email from reader Dan Austin
(who apparently suffers from the
same malady known as "trivia-
mania" as do I) who found an
article in the April 8, 1925 issue of
the Catalina Islander referencing
the two-word phrase
"over town."
Our own Chuck
Liddell, author of the
weekly Time Capsule
column in the Catalina
Islander, went into
action and not only
found said article, but
discovered that the
Ill
article was actually Jim Watson
referencing an even Columnist
earlier article from the
April 7, 1914 issue! (It appeared
in a column entitled "Little While
Back," meaning that--ironical-
ly-it was an old-time version of
Chuck's own Time Capsule).
I won't bother you with the
whole passage, but the money
quote where the phrase appears
involves a gentleman named Peter
Lubetich and his dealings with
the Knights of Columbus during
a trip to the mainland. The final
sentence in the passage reads,
"Pete also vigorously denies tak-
ing out a marriage license while
over town."
There you have it. While it is
spelled as two words, it nonethe-
less is clearly our earliest refer-
ence so far to this colloquialism.
Next, you need to know that
the Catalina Islander newspaper
in those days was owned and
nearly exclusively operated by
Judge Ernest J. Windle, who--
next to William Wrigley, Jr.--was
about as iconic a town patriarch as
Avalon has ever had.
Judge Windle was a profoundly
educated, deep thinking man and
when he wasn't hearing what few
legal cases were brought before
him in old Avalon, he was work-
ing his newspaper business and
writing news articles, features
and assorted thought pieces.
Everything that went through the
paper in those days was either
written by him or personally
approved by him, so I would ven-
ture to say the term very well may
have been first used by him.
But where did Judge
Windle come up with the
term? Did he coin the
term or was there histori-
cal precedent in his life
that influenced his choice
of words?
This is where it gets
really interesting. If
you'll recall in the first
column on this subject,
there was an accompa-
nying photograph of the
tiny English town of Overtown
above my caption that facetious-
ly asked "Did Catalina Islanders
get the term 'overtown' from the
settlement of the same name in
England's county of Lancashire?"
At the time, I never dreamed
that the two could possibly be
related. Little did I know how
close I may have been to the
truth.
You see, only last Saturday
I was speaking with the judge's
grand-daughter, Sue Bray, when I
learned that Judge Windle was not
only born and raised in England,
but he was born and raised ONLY
TWO MILES AWAY from that
very same village of Overtown,
Lancashire.
What are the odds that the man
who almost certainly first used
the term "overtown" on Catalina
Island grew up just down the road
from the only other town in the
world named Overtown?
....
March 8 through March 14
Shows Nightly at 7.:30
Matinee- Saturday & Thursday at 4:30pm
Again, for those of
you unfamiliar with
the term, the word
'overtown' is the
local Islanders' word
for "the mainland,'
and can be heard
around Avalon just
about any day of the
week or hour of day.
You've got it, my dear Watson!
Or do I? As it turns out,
Overtown, Lancashire, is appar-
ently not the only Overtown after
all. In fact, I found two other
settlements in the UK named
Overtown, one as far south as
Swindon and the other far to
the north in Lanarkshire (not
Lancashire), Scotland.
I also don't quite get the con-
nection of why Judge Windle
would reference Los Angeles,
California, with the tiniest of burgs
near his hometown. Perhaps the
term "overtown" is some archaic
British geographical term that
was given to small settlements
that overlooked wide lowlands or
something to that effect--some-
thing that could sorta-kinda apply
to Los Angeles. (Low and behold,
a quick trip on Google Earth
shows that all three Overtowns
in the UK are indeed located on
small rises overlooking the sur-
rounding landscape ).
This reference on Judge
Windle's part could, of course,
be a facetious one--an inside
joke that be shared with his sister
Sarah, with whom he had made
the trip to California. For exam-
ple, nicknaming the metropolis of
Los Angeles with the same name
as the tiny hamlet of Overtown,
England, might be akin to some-
one from Avalon jokingly referring
Meet Willy.
Willy is a 2-year-old half
Pomeranian and half Chihuahua
pup.
"Really, he thinks he's
a Labrador," said Linda
Rhoutsong, who owns Willy
with her husband Mike. "He
loves to swim and will follow
me across the pool."
Linda said Willy is her baby
and goes all over Avalon with
her. She says he is popular with
everyone he meets, and espe-
cially the ladies who all love
Willy when they meet him.
Do you have a pet you would
like featured in the Islander's
Pet of the Week feature?
Send information and photo
by e-mail to editor@thecatali-
naislander.com
to Los Angeles as Two Harbors
because of the "two harbors" of
Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Of course, it could be that I'm
just way over-thinking this whole
• Ilavid Montano
Wendy Hernandez
Colby Cushing
Jethm Flynn
LOreen Saldana
Rctul C ares
Nora Reyes
thing: We'll see what (if anything)
comes up over the next week.
Jim Watson is the author of
"Mysterious Island: Catalina,"
available on Amazon, Kindle and
in stores all over Avalon.
i|'
Are you a writer, or would like to be
one for the Catalina Islander?.
New reporters and guest columnists
are welcome. For more information,
send email to editor@thecatalinais-
lander.corn or call (310) 5tO-05OO.
81 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... FrJday~ March 8, 2013 ................ THE CAIFALiNA is~DER¸
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