You say potato . . .

It's occasionally fun to be reminded that I now live in an agricultural town--especially when that reminder does not come in the form of fresh manure scents wafting in my nostrils or gap-toothed cowboys wearing Carhartt coveralls (which, so help me, I left Alaska to get AWAY from!)

The most recent reminder was a linguistic one. At a Sunday dinner potluck hosted today by Before, a group of us got into conversation about the term "borrow pit," which all the agricultural kids know about and use, and which I and the rest of the decadent bourgeoisie had never before heard of.

Apparently it refers to the deep indentations on the side of the road.

Me: Isn't that a ditch?

Aggies: No, because there's no water in it.

Me: So it's only a ditch if it has water?

Aggies: Or if it sometimes has water.

Me: Riiiiiight.

So when they think of ditches they think of irrigation. I think of ditches as "where the dead bodies of stupid girls who jog alone in the dead of night end up." Also as place for the disposing of handguns. (We had different upbringings, apparently). I asked how you spell it, but none of the aggie kids could remember ever seeing it in print so they don't know how it's spelled (which means it's probably spelled d-i-t-c-h). It's pronounced "borrow pit," though.

I decided to research this a bit when I got home.

First tried burrow pit, which, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is a fancy word for hole someone dug up.

A borrow pit is "a pit from which construction material, as sand or gravel, is taken for use as fill at another location." Again . . . hole someone dug up.

Hit gold with barrow pit, which is a Western United States noun meaning roadside borrow pit dug for drainage purposes.

So, drainage . . . how is that different from a ditch, then?

Can anyone settle this for me? And are there any other names that you might use to label the place where your car goes when you swerve off the road to avoid a moose, cow, or ax-murderer?

Posted in: Utah