Spell Me A River

(CBS)  More than four times as long as the Mississippi, the longest body of water in America is a lake located near Webster, Mass. The longest, that, is, if you measure it not in miles, but in letters.

What lake? As CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports for this "Assignment America," it's extremely hard to say.

Susan Freiswick is president of the local chamber of commerce. It's her job to promote businesses on the lake. And yet, even she can't say what lake.

She makes two attempts at pronouncing it before giving up. "I missed the last part," she says. "Obviously I didn't practice it enough."

In Susan's defense, for most people, mastering the name of this place is a life-long pursuit. It typically begins in the third grade. Kids learn the Nipmunk Indian derivation of the name basically means, "fishing place at the boundary." They learn it has 15 g's alone. They learn it's longer than any other place name in the country, and wider than their gym.

And they start to learn how to say it:

"Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg!" they say in unison.

Got that? Hartman didn't either. Which brings us to lake association president and expert lake name say-er Dick Cazeault. Supposedly he knows the right pronunciation.

He rattled off a pretty convincing rendition.

Fact is, most people go to great lengths to avoid saying the name. Instead, they like to call it Webster Lake, after the town, or simply "the lake." Anything but having to say the whole name.

Unfortunately, someone still has to know how to spell it.

Carla Manzi runs the gift shop here. It's her job to cram the 45-letter name onto shirts and hats. So of course she noticed right away when it was spelled wrong on the accompanying sign.

She says she spoke up, but, "Apparently it fell on deaf ears."

"Who's going to know other than us?" Dick asks.

For six years, that was the thinking. Until one extremely observant tourist from Arizona notified the local paper. The scam was up and the sign was changed. Question now is - do they know their police cars are wrong too?
©2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved

[John_Merritt]

Great history lesson. Thanks. If I happen to ever visit there, all I am going to say is "I'm going to the lake". Nothing worse than having a sprained tongue. How do you put a cast on that?

[sricetx]

By the way, the Collier's Magazine article said it's an old Indian name that means: "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle."

Shirley Morris Rice
[e-mail]
210-497-1515

[sricetx]

This story was of special interest to me, since our family has quite a history with the name of this lake, even though we?re based in Texas and have never been to Webster, Mass.

In 1950, when I was a seventh-grader, I was county champion of one of the first National Spelling Bees ever held. That spring, Collier?s magazine ran an article about the three longest words in the world. Two of them were so rife with consonants that I couldn?t even begin to pronounce them, but the third ? ah! It could be sounded out phonetically! Before long, I had learned to pronounce and to spell Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, so I used that unique knowledge to amuse and amaze my friends. (Can you say ?nerd??)

Years later, I taught the word to my husband, Cecil Morris, and our two sons. Since Cecil was a high school band director, we began to make up stories about the Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg High School and its band and football games:

?Will the driver of the Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg High School bus please report to your bus. No, it hasn?t been hit in the parking lot. No, the engine isn?t running. Your name is blocking the driveway!?

Cheer leaders:
?Give me a C.?
?C?
?Give me an H.?
?H? ?
?and the Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg High School football team was penalized for delay of game.

Then at half-time, the band was going to spell out the name of the school, but it was a very small school and a very small band, so the entire band formed a ?C? and marched it down the field, then ran around behind the stands and formed an ?H? and marched it down the field? again a penalty for delay of game.

We had two candidates for a school song:

1. (To the tune of O Tannenbaum):
O, Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg,
O, Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg,
All hail to thee, O, Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg,

2. (To the tune of Auld Lang Syne):
Char-gogg-a-gogg man-chaugg-a-gogg chau-bu-na-gung-a-maugg?etc.

In later years, since Cecil had enjoyed great success with his bands in competitions, he became a judge of band competitions. He regaled his fellow judges with these stories in the judges? lounges as they made it around the judging circuit.

After a couple of years, one of his fellow judges sent out letters to all the judges, stating that Cecil?s stories about that Lake in Massachussetts were really true ? at least there was a lake with that name. He had seen a sign pointing to it, and it was only about 10 miles out of his way, so he had gone there. He had collected a sample of water from the lake and sent it to us ? I still have it, although Cecil passed away in 1993.

Cecil was in the Phoenix airport on his way to the west coast for a judging assignment when a man walked by wearing a Chargoggagoggmanchaugoggagoggchaubunagungamaugg T-shirt! Cecil spun around and caught him ? stopped him right there in the airport and told him about what that name had meant to him and our family. After hearing the story, the man whipped off the T-shirt and handed it to Cecil, saying, ?Here. You need this more than I do,? ?and disappeared, shirtless, down the corridor of the airport. I still have that T-shirt as well.

Shirley Morris Rice