Glossary of Duvall Terms

Today I tackle a Glossary of Duvall Terms. If you’re new to Duvall, you’re bound to hear terms or phrases thrown around that make little or no sense to you.

“Traffic was so bad, they had to use the pickle”

“What about the giraffes?”

“I think the event is in the old library.”

Some of these terms have been around a while and others are fairly new. The echo chamber on the community Facebook groups helps build popularity and momentum around terms that might otherwise disappear fairly quickly.

I asked discussion board participants which terms they’d include in a glossary for this page and the answers came pouring in. There were several things I had never heard before. But then, as stated previously, I’m a transplant of a mere 11 years. I’m hoping one of the Old Timers will take up my offer to write a guest post of glossary of terms for us newcomers.

I can’t possibly cover everything today. But, in no particular order besides alphabetical, here are a few to get started:

The App – There is a Windows App that links to Jim Gale’s Duvall Mobile Flood and Snowmageddan page. It gives you everything you need to know about impending doom. Traffic cameras. Flood predictions. School and road closures. Power outages. Search “Duvall Mobile Flood” in the app store.

Big Rock Park – Sometimes misslabeled “Big Rock State Park,” or referred to as the smallest State Park in Washington, the park is adorably tiny, but it’s a county park. It’s composed of the big rock that Big Rock Road is named after, 2 large sequoia trees, and a picnic bench. [Read more]

The Depot – The Depot is the old railroad building down by the entrance to McCormick Park. Technically it’s part of its own park, creatively named Depot Park. I’ll have to do a future post all about the history. I do know it was donated by Ray and Tove Burhen. You can rent it for events, but not birthday parties. Birthday parties are forbidden.

Duvall Island/Lake Duvall – When the valley floods, usually in the spring or fall, we get a gorgeous body of water between 203 and Snoqualmie Valley Road. Lake Duvall. If the flood is bad enough to close 124th, Woodinville-Duvall Road, and 203 in both directions, we are cut off from the world and become Duvall Island.

Giraffes – The unofficial spirit animal and mascot of Duvall. It was first introduced into Duvall culture when King County built a controversial animal bridge over Novelty Hill Road. Find more detailed information here.

Green Park/Toddler Park/Tot Lot/Judd Park – These are all the same place. On the corner of 150th and 275th stands a park with green play structures. It’s named after former mayor Lloyd Judd. It’s a big meetup spot for families with young kids and also bored middle schoolers who don’t know where to hang out.

The Hub – Redemption Church’s gathering place on Main Street in the building that, until recently, housed a bank. You can see their trailer parked out front with pictures of the beautiful Glover family on the side. This one is relatively new but I’ve heard several people refer to it as though everyone knew what it was, so I thought it deserved a mention.

Is 124th Open? – Did they close 124th across the valley due to flooding? This matters for a couple of reasons, probably the biggest of which is, if 124th is closed, traffic in and out of Duvall will be a nightmare. They might even need to bring out “The Pickle.” (see below)

Old Library – The adorable red building in the heart of Main Street between The Grange and the Wild Fish Conservancy. This was the King County library in Duvall when we first moved here and it now serves as the Duvall Visitor Center. It frequently hosts community craft fairs and other events and is available to rent.

The Parade – Duvall Days. The festive celebration of everything Duvall. We head over to Carnation for 4th of July festivities. Around the 4th of June each year, citizens of Carnation head to Duvall to celebrate with us. Tractors, drill teams, librarians, elected officials, dancing horses, free Kathy Lambert paper. The Duvall Days parade has everything.

Pickle or Pickling – From the Duvall Police Department Facebook Page: ”This refers to a small, hand held electronic device which an Officer can plug in to the control box at the intersection of Main and Virginia. The ‘pickle’ allows the Officer to manipulate the light cycles at that intersection to maximize traffic flow during times of road closures, especially floods.” There are never not complaints about pickling when it happens. It only happens when traffic is already horrible so people can’t tell if the manual traffic control makes things better or worse; they just know it took them two hours to drive home from work.

The River – If someone says, “Let’s hang out at the river,” chances are REAL good they’re talking about the sandy beach in McCormick park, just down from the police station parking lot and the Depot. On summer days it is packed with babies eating sand, elementary school kids digging really large holes, and tweens and teens awkwardly flirting. It also houses the Sandblast every year.

Rose Room – Housed in the basement of The Old Library, the Rose Room is a meeting area with tables and chairs and a small kitchenette. It doubled as a break room for library staff and the location of Story Time and other meetings. It takes a talented librarian to keep kids’ attention when they’re sitting on mismatched spinning office chairs in a basement room with no wall hangings and a dated kitchen directly in their line of vision.

Windstorm – When people tell Tales about a big windstorm, most often they refer to December 2006 when much of Duvall lost power for a week or longer leading up to Christmas. It was COLD and it was DARK and at our house we refer to it as the Attack of the Ents. Tony Gill says, “We were officially out of power for 10 days and 8 hours (to the exact minute).”

People who have lived here a little longer may be referring to the Inauguration Day Storm of January 1993. I still lived in Canada at that point and had no idea about a storm and not much idea about an inauguration RE: Immigrant. So I’ll leave it to others to tell that story.

Woody-Du/Woo-Du/The WD – So many creative ways to refer to “Woodinville-Duvall Road”. It has too many syllables. Everyone knows this, but no one has the guts to make a permanent change. I think we should call it Ernie.

Below are a few more terms I plan cover in another installment of this glossary. Do you have any other suggestions?

Holiday Heifer/Christmas Cow
The Mountain is Out
Christmas Reference to Taylor’s Ridge
The Valley
Downtown
The Twisties
The Silver Spoon
Mallowmars
Piano Drop
The Trail
Thayer Barn

As always, if you find any inaccuracies in this post, please tell me in the comments. I love learning about our town.

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