a few notes about where we're from

Kyle is originally from Kokomo. I don't know much about Kokomo, but I do know these two things:

1. This isn't some island in the tropics, as the Beach Boys had led me to believe. Maybe there is an island called Kokomo, but it's something else. Perhaps even spelled differently.

2. Kokomo, if I remember correctly, is thus named because it was founded by three friends, Koko, Mo, and Forgetful Jojo, who kept forgetting that Koko and Mo already knew each other and thus he spent a lot of time re-introducing them, and was doing so when some conquistadors came strolling along, overheard them, stuck a flag in the ground and claimed Kokomo for whatever kingdom they'd come from. Often conquistadors change the names of the towns they "discover," but in this case they astutely realized that Kokomo has a nice ring to it, and left it alone (apart from taking over and planting flags and such). And isn't it nice for Kokomites everywhere that the forgetful founding father was Jojo? Otherwise the town might have been named Jokojoko (which is laughable as names go) or Mojojo. Or, more likely, some generic conquistadorean name.

I mostly grew up in Groveland.

Groveland was originally called Centrella, as it is found in the very center of Central Illinois. But its citizens were great fans of Grover Cleveland, and 2 years into his reign they changed the name of the town to Grovercleveland. After he left office, Groverclevelanders (as they were then called) lobbied loud and long for the former Mr. President to build his presidential library in their charming town. He rudely & callously dismissed their pleas as ridiculous and began instructing his secretary to return all mail postmarked Grovercleveland as "Return to sender, because sender is a dolt and addressee doesn't want to read his or her stupid letter." By the way, this is not normally a valid Return to sender reason, but the postal service makes exceptions for ex-presidents. Rightly outraged, the Groverclevelanders unanimously decided to change their name yet again. They couldn't go back to the name Centrella, as it had since been assumed and copyrighted by a distributor of inexpensive canned & boxed foods. The town French teacher suggested simply shortening the name to Gland, as that is the french word for acorn, and acorns are plentiful in the center of Central Illinois. For a few months, Gland was the name of the town, but nearby nemesis town Morton (which has been trying to annex Groveland for centuries) kept mocking the name and calling the town Sweat Gland. So the townspeople were frustrated and stumped, until a bright child suggested Groveland since it kept much of Grovercleveland (which had been a really fun & beloved name prior to the library fiasco) and accurately described the general landscape of the town, which is spotted with groves of trees, many of which, but by no means all, are acorn-producing oaks. And Groveland was a hit (plus the bright child's dad was the deputy mayor, and his mom was the head librarian of the town's nice-but-not-presidential library), and that is what the town is called to this day.