Spaced out

By Diane Montanez
Glad You Asked

I live on Piedmont Avenue and drive down Lahoma/La Homa instead of Pueblo Avenue when I need to get on Soscol Avenue. One street sign shows a space between La and Homa. One does not. Both signs have been up for many years. Which one is correct?

La Homa is OK!

Jeff Folks, city of Napa street field supervisor, attributes the discrepancy to former sign technicians “probably not paying attention to what they were doing.” Folks added that the mistake would soon be rectified.

The Lahoma vs. La Homa question is not the only one in Napa. Folks noted that he’d heard from a resident upset over the fact that DeWitt Avenue formerly had both a capital D and a capital E until finally the E was demoted and the street sign changed.

Being language-centric, I consulted my handy-dandy English-Spanish dictionary — which surprisingly I have used quite a bit at my job here — to find out what “la homa” or “lahoma” meant. I came up empty-handed. I erroneously assumed it was a Spanish word. It’s not. A Web search indicates the word “Lahoma” (no space between) is of Native American origin. Two likely possible definitions of the word are “red man” or “the people.” Lahoma was also used as a shortening of Oklahoma.

Okey dokey?

What is Glad You Asked?

Glad You Asked attempts to answer readers’ questions. Are you showing signs of confusion? Send your questions to dmontanez@napanews.com or call me at 256-2224.

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