Cum Park Plaza Sign (Burlington, NC)

I started Strange Carolinas to share my love of roadside attractions with anyone who would listen and to also reconnect people with their surroundings. There are things in your hometown that folks would find interesting or strange, but because you have seen them your entire life, they don't really register with you anymore. I'm trying to fix that. I'm wanting to reconnect everyone with the strange and interesting that surrounds them.

And I'm guilty of it too! I'll give you two examples.

I've shared this before, but here it goes again. It wasn't until I went off to college that I realized my middle school's mascot was a little out of the ordinary. We were the Satans. But because I spent three years there chanting, "Here we go Satans, here we go!" at football games with my friends, it didn't even register. Plus, you have college teams like the Blue Devils, Deamon Deacons, and the like, so I didn't think Satans was much different. My college friends assured me it was. A few years later, they changed the name to the Puritans or the Wusses or something like that.

Another example? Cum Park Plaza. Sure, I had chuckled at the name when I became old enough to get the joke, but my family shopped there, so it was just a part of the surroundings. The name didn't really register anymore. But I realize how out of the ordinary it is when I see it pop up on Reddit or some late night talk show hosts brings it up on his monitor.

So what's the point of all this? I don't know. Pay attention to your surroundings, embrace the strange, and enjoy the Cum Park Plaza sign, which was named after the two men, Hugh M. Cummings (who a nearby high school is also named after) and Carl Parks, that started the shopping center in the 1960s. Some lady actually won $500 in a contest by suggesting that name.

Wonder what was on her mind...