Potholes.
A sure way to start an animated conversation in any setting at any time.
For a stranger walking in to one of these chats, they could be forgiven to think they were listening to fishing stories.
"This one time, I saw one and it was THIS big!"
And so on.
But it hasn't always been this way.
A quick dive down the pothole of time shows a different perspective on the history of this insidious scourge to the health and well-being of our fair community.
Just like today's potholes, history's potholes are also easy to find.
Since 2008, area residents have been able to access Prince George's newspaper record, going back to 1909 online at http://pgnewspapers.lib.pg.bc.ca/. The database has continued to grow and now reaches the late 1970s, thanks to the great work of the Prince George Public Library and generous ongoing funding from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Diving into a database can be challenging, especially when looking for something as specific as potholes. In other words, it takes the help of a professional to uncover some good data, so thanks to the spectacular Gina Rawson, the library's community outreach and local history librarian, for helping dig up some pothole goodies from years gone by.
The first mention of potholes in a Prince George newspaper dates back to Sept. 3, 1919, but it's not what you think. The word was buried in a story in the Citizen criticizing the relocation of the train station and it only had a passing reference to roads.
"The city of Prince George is asked to assume a heavy burden in making a road to the almost inaccessible pothole wherein the Commissioners in their blind ignorance have decreed the station shall be built," the story reads.
The second and third references to potholes in Prince George's newspaper history are in the July 10, 1924, and Oct. 29, 1925 editions of the Citizen are again not about roads. In both of those cases, they are in reference to "The Devil's Potholes" in Maligne Canyon in Jasper National Park.
The next reference reveals where potholes actually came from.
In the June 17, 1926 Citizen, there is a story with the headline "Trapper In Fort St. James Believed To Have Suicided." To digress a moment, it appears suicide was a verb in the 1920s, which leads to the thought that if one was in the act of committing suicide back then, that would have been called suiciding.
The secondary headline reads "Police dragging potholes in Stuart River to recover body."
Two obvious points to be made here.
First, potholes began as water-based organisms before migrating to land, once again proving Darwin's theory of evolution.
Second, these early potholes were so big that police periodically had to search them for bodies.
The first mention of potholes in the modern sense of the word appears on page 2 in the Aug. 17, 1944 edition of the Citizen, under the headline "Potholes Grow Until Asphalt "Defrosted.""
The lead paragraph of the story is fantastic.
"That Ald. Fred Taylor has a personal name for each pothole west of the Princess Theatre where a primer coat of oil was recently laid may be attributed to a deadlock between the oil controller and Imperial Oil Company."
Potholes, like their equally destructive cousin, the common hurricane, clearly deserve to be named. Like hurricanes, they should have female names but unlike hurricanes, only one name will do and that's Phyllis.
For you young whippersnappers, that name is pronounced "Fill-Us."
An old name for an old problem.
