What's In a Name?

I know it's been a long time since I've posted on here, but I'm excited to have a chance to sit and reflect on the last couple months.

I can't pass up this opportunity to share a story with you. At the end of July, I traveled to southwest Iowa to attend a funeral for my Grand-Uncle...is that the right terminology for my Grandpa's brother? Anyway...it was a wonderful time of fellowship with some family members that I hadn't seen in eons, and it was a wonderful celebration of Uncle Carl's life.

Sometimes along the road of mourning and sadness, God gives us little bits of humor in places we least expect. The sleepy little hollow of Hamburg, Iowa (not so sleepy anymore for reasons not mentioned here) was one such place during this trip. We were driving into Hamburg (population 1,240) on the last day of our trip when a particular restaurant caught my eye.

Yep...that's right. "Ye Ole Yack-N-Snack." Now most people probably identify the word "yack" with talking alot, but I came from an upbringing where the word had a double meaning. Not to turn the blog sour, but when I was a kid we had a dog named Dagwood. In our family, the word "yack" referred to Dagwood's action of vomiting after eating something digestively challenging. With that in mind, you can see how I got quite a chuckle from the name of the joint. Needless to say, I wasn't tempted to eat there : ) Maybe an even better name would have been "Ye Ole' Snack-N-Yack!"

We decided to park across the street from the restaurant at an old-fashion, soda-fountain drug store. I love drug stores that hold onto this tradition - especially Jay Drug in Shenandoah, IA. As we were heading in to order up a cold treat, I noticed the name of the drug store...Remember, this is right across the street from the Yack Shack.


God bless my Grandma who was with us, but we had to explain the humor of the name to her. I guess it's a sign of our times, huh!? I'm sure this drug store has been in business in Hamburg for a long time, but never had I taken notice of it, or the irony of it's name.

I've got to hand it to Hamburg, IA for creativity - whether it was intentional or not on their part. I sure got a good laugh!