Monday, January 04, 2010

San Bernadino [sic]

What's wrong with my spelling? I was looking at some old books at the local bookstore here in Cagayan de Oro and they referred to the county seat of my hometown as the name of the city you see written at the top of this page.

In grade school, even though we didn't actually live in the county seat, my fifth grade teacher had a very unusual spelling test. Without preparation she tested us on the spelling of words placed on street signs. Words included crossing, through, prohibited, railroad, and the name of the county seat. Five terms on an unprepared spelling test. Most of the class wrote xing, thru, and RXR, which were wrong. But that's the way they are spelled on signs. Surprisingly most of the class could spell prohibited.

No one could spell the county seat, which is properly spelled (and pronounced) San Bernardino. It has two Rs in it. If you can't see that, you must be from Los Angeles and believe that only hicks live in area code 909. (This is the reason why Riverside broke out of that area code and went with 951 a few years ago... Seriously!)