East Giblip or East Jablip?

Is it East Giblip or East Jablip? No one's quite sure.

A brief discussion of a nowhere place.

As you might tell from the title, there's confusion about how to spell this word. For now, I'm going to use the "giblip" version because that's how I first envisioned it when I heard it.

You hear the term frequently enough in the Philadelphia area, usually in reference to some vague place that sounds like it's in the middle of nowhere. In Pennsylvania there's so much nowhere that they've designated a specific part of nowhere called East Giblip. That's when you know you're really out there. Nowheres-ville.

Photo of me
In East Giblip

Back when I was a teenager, my friends and I would get in a car and seek out East Giblip, traveling down lonely country roads, turning left, then right, then left, onto narrower and narrower roads. Finally, completely lost, we'd stop, usually with nothing but fields on either side, then we'd get out and take it all in. The stars in the skies, the crickets and cicada's chirping and buzzing in slow waves. That peaceful sense was what East Giblip was all about, and we were glad that everyone else avoided it.

That's a little background about this nowhere place. If you have other ideas, opinions or remembrances about what East Giblip is please send them to me. john@giblip.org Cheers!



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March 21, 2005