When I went to vote on election day, the first question the precinct worker asked was my address. I answered that I lived on Dume Drive, pronouncing it “doom,” and was immediately corrected.The proper pronunciation, she insisted, is “do-may.” It seems that along with our beached, the headlands, the wildlife and our beloved septic systems, we have our proper pronunciation.
Those of us who live on Dume Drive spend a lot of time on the phone spelling our street. I say, “Dume Drive” (using the correct pronunciation), “D-U-M-as-in-Mary E.” When the person I’m talking to realizes I’m in Malibu, his or her reaction is that “doom” is the perfect name for an area notorious for its fires, floods and earthquakes.
The precinct worker was right. It would clearly help our tarnished image to return to the old “Do-may” days. The question is, how do we effect the change?
Public relations alone won’t do the trick. PR campaigns cost money and require a tremendous amount of energy and commitment. These days we’re all exhausted from the N, O and P efforts and bleary-eyed from watching MSNBC and CNN as they discuss who will have the misfortune of being our next President. I don’t think I could find enough collective energy among my neighbors to undertake an effective “Take the Doom out of Dume” campaign.
Another possibility – accentuate the positive. We could simply insert a French accent aigu over the “e” in “Dume.” Unfortunately, the vast majority of Malibu/Pt. Dume residents wouldn’t know where to put their hands on an accent sign if their lives depended on it. I know I wouldn’t.
There is a solution, however: change the spelling of the word – from “Dume” to “Doomay.” There you have it. And one can find plenty of precedents for this kind of thing. Words evolve. There is hardly a word around today that didn’t used to be something else. A casual reading of The Canterbury Tales will illustrate the point. The words Chaucer used clearly weren’t doing the job and have since been improved.
This may be just the cause to unite all Malibuians. Let’s put aside our differences over development, parking at the headlands, pollution in the lagoon and those damned peacocks. Let’s unite all Malibu behind the renaming of Pt. Dume. Hip hip hooray for Pt. Doomay.
Elias Davis