INTERESTING TID BITS

STORY POLES

You may be more familiar with the term totem pole, and if you haven’t been to Canada for several years you may not have heard the term story poles. The word totem is actually an American Indian word, but it seems early explorers thought native peoples worshiped totem poles. This is not at all true as the poles tell a family history. The history of totem poles is long and interesting so long story short for several years now Canadians have referred to totem poles as story poles.

Along this line the terminology of Indian, Eskimo and any other ‘old fashion’ term for the native peoples has been replaced with First Nation’s People or peoples. Personally I like this descriptive name absent of any kind of connotation. Both of these terms have been incoperated into Canadian English and are widely used.

ONION vs HELMET DOMES

Like most people, I thought an onion dome was an onion dome. It was not until I was in Russia that the difference of an onion dome and a helmet dome was pointed out to me, and if I recall correctly it was in the Kremlin.

Onion domes definitely look like onions and are probably the most popular and widely used dome. They abound on churches and are a common sight in many Eastern European cities. When one knows the difference it is easy to spot a helmet dome. They do look like a soldier’s helmet of old. These domes are seen  less often and are pretty rare in the United States.

My home town does have both domes in its city’s square that can be  seen and easily compared from a vantage point in the county court house.