Friday, May 6, 2011

Burlington Liar's Club

I was born in Burlington, Iowa.

I discovered many years later that it was named Burlington because John B. Gray, was the first American to purchase a lot in the early 1833 settlement, and named it for his former home, Burlington, Vermont.  Before that I believe it was referred to as Shoquoquon by the native Sac and Fox Indians.  Shoquoquon referred to the flint hills which were abundant. 

One of my brother in-laws was a "Brit", and also the Dad of my soccer playing nephew who came to visit us recently....anyway, Storey never stopped bugging me about being a Yank and coming from Burlington.  In the entire clan we two were the only fair headed heathen!  He would stand at one end of the family photos with his red hair, and I at the other with my blond hair --the rest were all black or dark brown - made for some unusual photos - but we enjoyed it!

Storey had/has a great sense of humour, and used to call me on my birthday and just hum the American National Anthem and hang up.

Then he discovered the Burlington Liar's Club.  He started sending me newspaper clippings that were popping up in publications. I thought it was a joke, but when investigating a bit further I discovered it was a real Club - what a great idea!

In the States alone there are 23 different cities spread throughout the 50 States named Burlington.  I was amazed.  I haven't yet begun to discover how many Burlingtons there are in the world but the name is growing!

So I investigated a bit further and discovered the Burlington Liar's Club has a web-site.  It is a lot of fun and one of the things that they do annually is run a contest for the best Burlington Liar!

Here is a link: http://www.burlingtonliarsclub.com/pastLies.html

I thought you might enjoy these!

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