I squeezed a few research minutes into my busy social calendar. I have been to the hotel breakfast twice already, and plan to make another trip to the front desk to check for the books I am impatiently awaiting to arrive from Amazon sellers. I also need to take my work clothes, caked with puke-smelling mud down the hall to the washer machine. I can't really count that as part of my social calendar since I don't usually run into people in the hall. Now, if I were taking them into the Rainbow City laundromat, then I would count it. I almost always have a conversation there. Like this one last week: "Excuse me, ma'am. Did you just take your clothes out of this washer? Would you mind looking to see if you find a sock like this one?"I don't have a car this weekend, so I'm not going to go anywhere. I lost my cell phone, so I don't have to worry about all those people who never call me anyway interrupting me. I should have time to do even more research. Here's what I've found so far:
"Rainbow City was named after U.S. Highway 411, called Rainbow Drive, which runs through the middle of our city. Some of our older citizens say it was named after Alabama’s Rainbow Division that fought in World War I."
"The 42nd Rainbow Division was formed in August 1917 of National Guard units from 26 states and the District of Columbia. After Chief of Staff Major Douglas MacArthur remarked that the Division "would stretch over the whole country like a rainbow," the coalesced national guard units were christened Rainbow Division. As the war progressed Douglas MacArthur was promoted to commander of the 84th Brigade and finally to commander of the Rainbow Division."
I don't know about you guys, but I think it's funny that a town might have been named after a highway.
