There's a street named after my dad. I've always sort of known this, but for some reason I never really thought much about it until the recent debate over the renaming of Akron's Wooster Avenue for Vernon Odom, the late civil rights leader. Most of that debate has nothing to do with whether Odom is deserving of such an honor. He clearly is.
People grow attached to their street name.
Their address is part of their basic identity. They feel that way even if they live on the admittedly unpoetic Giffels Drive in Cuyahoga Falls, not far from the Stow border. I'd like to tell you that the street bears my father's name because of his many great achievements. That he was chosen by the masses to be immortalized on this shady little dogleg of a road. And, in fact, he would probably like me to tell you that, too.