A: Sad but true, Anne (and not exactly breaking news): Virginia has its issues with gay people. The extent of the discomfort, however, does not reach to renaming towns whose highway exit signs prompt pointing and giggling. In fact, according to the Greene County Administrator’s office, the town of Dyke does not even exist. See, the county administrator’s office explains that you need “a charter, mayor and council members” in order to be considered a town. Details, schmetails—it’s on the map, isn’t it?
Town, area, whatever…according to the secretary of Greene County Administrator Julius L. Morris, who preferred not to grace Ace with the knowledge of her name, “the area of Dyke has not been renamed to the knowledge of this office.” Before hanging up, though, she did mention that the area out by the Blue Ridge School is known as St. George. Eureka, a clue at last!
The school, founded in 1909 as a co-ed vocational school, was restructured in 1962 to its present incarnation as an all-boys school for students who “did not realize their full potential in other settings.” While admissions officer Betty Morris conceded that the Blue Ridge School had changed its mailing address from Dyke to St. George five or six years ago, she did not acknowledge that it had anything to do with the sexual undercurrents of posting mail to “Dyke.”
Explained Morris, “We share the same zip code as Dyke…it’s very close, but the Blue Ridge School is in St. George…[the mail] just comes through the Dyke post office.” Apparently, back in the day, the Blue Ridge School had its own post office, and its recent change of address occurred when the school revived the former campus post office. The mail still goes through Dyke but is then sent on to the school, which, wink wink, nudge nudge, is in St. George.
But back to the offending word in question. Its mysterious origins reportedly range from a Celtic queen named Boudicca (Bou-dyke-ah) who fought the Roman Empire 1,937 years ago to an abbreviation of “hermaphrodite.” Not surprisingly, Dyke, Virginia, has equally ambiguous origins: In fact, it seems Dyke was just born that way.