Salisbury
We have recently been subjected to a big flap about a nickname for Salisbury. Some think “da bury” sounds more contemporary and the other short form is SBY. Salisbury is, or should be; better than some slang name or the designated letters used at the airport.
Our name is SALISBURY. While there are many other cities named Salisburyboth here in the United States and around the world, our fair city has the distinction of being the first to use it.
There are two theories about the origin of the name Salisbury. One is that it was used by the early settlers of Salisbury because a majority of them came from the area of Salisbury in Wiltshire, southern England. The second is that we were named after the Earl of Salisbury. His name was Sir Robert Cecil, the Prime Minister under Elizabeth I. A protégé of Sir Robert Cecil was the young George Calvert, later named Lord Baltimore. At one time he owned all of the land that is now Maryland, including Salisbury.
As you can see from looking at the license tag add-ons, we were known as the “Hub of Delmarva” because of our geographic location. To refer to our fair city as “da bury” is both insulting to our heritage and projects the wrong image in this day and age. While we should have been honoring our past, we did everything we could to sell off our history.
Salisbury is about 75% rentals, so the amount of people who are laying down roots here is dwindling. We should have done something about preserving our past years ago. Now most of it is gone, never to be enjoyed by the present or future generations. We should make our city something to be proud of, a destination that people want to come to. Other towns on the Shore have revived their heritage. In the modern world, we are a small town and we should make every effort to make it a great small town. In the 1950’s the “powers that be” were determined to compete in the modern world and obliterated most of the old charm that used to be Salisbury. Except for the Poplar Hill Mansion and a few old restored Victorian homes, there is very little to attract people to Salisbury. The best repository for anything old relating to Salisbury is the Nabb Center at Salisbury University. Their staff does a wonderful job and anyone wanting to know something about genealogy or the history of the area should pay them a visit.
Forget “da bury” and SBY. Our city is named SALISBURY and should be referred to as such.
17 comments:
Well said!
"Da Bury" is no different than those dumb ass "RoFo" signs
let's face it, we are in a forever downward spiral to the lowest common denominator
shared misery... the goal of communism
Good article as usual George. I agree with you. Our city is Salisbury not da bury, etc.
This "Ebonics" at it's worse!
"This "Ebonics" at it's worse!"
And this is English at its worst, a contributor to our demise.
This is one of the best pieces I have ever read on this blog or about Salisbury. It will be dismissed by the likes of Ireton and Day as sentimental pap, but it's way more than that. Let's see if they can figure out how.
Talk about good old boy.......I guess NYC shouldn't be used based on that ideology. Any means of talking positively about a city is good no matter how or what you call your city. If you choose to think negatively on a name that's on you. Maybe if you point out the good in the area the 'bury' or 'SBY' may not mean something negative.
Let me make something very clear here because most of you have never heard what I'm about to tell you.
10 years ago when I was discussing the creation of a Blog I was going to call it Salisbury News. We were going to use salisburynews.com but a friend suggested we cut it down to SBYNews.com instead, similar to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the like.
THAT is how and why we came up with SBYNews.
"da bury" sounds like a bunch of thugs....why would anyone want to promote that? Oh that's right - Salisbury is full of thugs - how foolish of me. Once again, the dumbing down of our community.
da bury sounds like you need to go to the bathroom and re wipe. ding-b
And the immature college kids living in neighborhoods 4 to a home in the county. put there by
slumlords are ruining property values, and driving people away.
these kids are totally blind to the children, as they speed up and down neighborhood roads. drink all night, keeping people up. I've seen a couple having sex in broad daylight on the hood of a car in our neighborhood. other college kids urinating and deficating in broad daylight in yards of homes they rent, that were once 300,000.00 homes, now reduced to trash, and that's what lives in them. until the council (county) and sheriff's dept. (a joke as they are useless) address these issues, the county will continue to die.
Standing Ovation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great piece George. Born and raised in Salisbury and am very sad to see what it has become because of the immature, small minded, greedy leaders.
Salisbury can, once again, become the gem of the past, but it's going to take great leadership. We need to look around and see who loves Salisbury and has the knowledge, ability, expertise and a true desire to work with a team and make it work.
Then we, as citizens, need to get behind them and see to it that they win elections. Sounds hard, but this can be done. There is hope, but only if we don't give up.
I liked the article and George, as usual, added some good information.
But the question posed originally was about the attempt to foist 'bury as a slogan or focal point. It was and is a juvenile plan, and the oval they prepared is busy and not informative.
My guess is that the logical abbreviation to use in a campaign like this - SBY was rejected by the power clique because it might have reflected positively on this blog. This loopy decision was in spite of the fact that SBY has been the airport designator for the regional airport for decades.
Try looking up local weather info on weather sites, for example. SBY is already embedded.
IF a short, memorable acronym or abbreviation was desired SBY should have been the first and last choice instead of trying to reinvent the wheel on the cheap.
I take a bit of issue with George on one point. He seems to suggest that 'bury is an attempt to subsume and replace Salisbury. Don't think that was the goal.
The current regime is accustomed to leading from behind and trying to copycat what works elsewhere; some times that's OK. But if your copycatting you should be improving on your model instead of regressing.
Salisbury is our town's name but SBY is a fine abbreviation. If the real goal is attracting visitors and business, city hall should admit a miscue and re-tool with a tagline that can succeed.
what's "rofo" 9:07?
1:37pm
ROFO is what people call the Royal Farm stores around here.
1:37.. What people?? This is the first time I have seen or heard it.
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