Dear Editor,
I am really pleased to announce the return of the Georgetown Association for the Appreciation of Potholes (GAAP). This Society was formed in the 1990’s and brought to fame such wonderful potholes as the Middle Street Monster, the Church Street Grinder, and not forgetting of course, the Avenue of the Republic Avenger. All those potholes were well recorded and measured and became an almost loved part of travel at that time. The Society would meet and go out to examine the potholes, common in the nineties, to record width, depth, even circumference and, of course, content.
It was a well-known fact that some potholes would develop life otherwise unknown to science, with small insect-like objects seemingly grown to absorb the impact of a 41×14.5R 16 or even a 175/45R 18, enjoying the splash as taxis and minibuses and 4x4s thundered overhead. It was even known that the Council would actually go to the trouble of digging up a pothole, and moving it to another spot, to give the public a wider experience and leaving an even larger pothole behind, and breeding a younger and indeed healthier offspring. Spring was often indeed the focus as water would begin to seep from some of the best potholes, those known by their characteristic colour, a clay-based wall and definitive hard-top over-hangs. The junction by the National Library comes to mind and is much missed.
It is so refreshing now (to those members who are still around to enjoy a good pothole) to see the return of the species. We have been out measuring some of the prominent up-and-coming potholes around Georgetown and have found extremely good results, especially in East Street, and with a truly classical pothole development by the Cenotaph, which we are watching grow as we write. But of course the all-up winner to date must be the pothole at the top of Lamaha Street before Vlissingen Road. This is a true moving pothole, or (as the Latin name has it), “potholae conrepto”, as it seeks to slide sideways into the Lamaha Canal. It is truly difficult to deliberately construct such creatures and the Council must be congratulated on the way they have preserved this monument to pothole credibility, especially considering the heavy in-fill work on the mall adjacent.
To those readers who wish to join the Pothole Society, you can apply, with a pothole of at least 40cm average diameter*, which you may bring with you, or otherwise direct the committee as to its whereabouts, and a description of any animal or insect you may have found there. Let everyone understand, potholes are a historic feature of Georgetown, in the same way as Easter Island has head statues. Let us support them and not let them be filled in and pushed to the back of history and forgotten. *For Society definitions of potholes, please see the GAAP Rule Book.
Sincerely,
Peter Bouchard
