East Jesus, East Burlap, East Overshoe, and Other Unreachable Places

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Audrey and I’m from Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Hey, Audrey, welcome.

Hi, Audrey, welcome to the show.

Thank you, thank you.

I was calling because I have a question about the phrase East Jesus Nowhere.

And kind of my story about how I realized it was a weird phrase.

I’m originally from Arkansas, but I work as a traveling speech therapist.

And I’ve done jobs in California and Massachusetts.

And I’m on my way to Florida right now for my next job.

But when I was up in Massachusetts, me and some of my coworkers were talking about, you know, where I would go next and how travel therapy works.

And I said, well, if you’re willing to work out in East Jesus nowhere, then you can make a lot of money.

And they all started laughing at me.

And they were like, I’ve never heard that before.

And I kind of brushed it off.

I thought maybe it was like a regional thing, like from Arkansas, even though I don’t feel like I usually have a Southern dialect.

And we kind of talked about, well, what do you guys say?

And one of the guys said he would say something like East Overshoe or just call it the middle of nowhere, something like that.

So I was like, OK.

So later on, I was thinking about it.

And I was like, no, I got that from the movie Juno.

I remember the mom in Juno says, oh, they’re out in East Jesus nowhere.

And so I got curious.

So I did some Googling.

And the first thing that came up was a link to a Reddit page talking about how Billy Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day, had written a song called East Jesus Nowhere inspired by the line in Juno as well.

So then it got me wondering, was that a phrase before Juno or did it come from Juno?

And then I was like, I know who to call.

So East Jesus Nowhere is just this vague, faraway place that is hard to get to.

Yes, exactly.

We could be like, oh, they live way out in East Jesus nowhere.

Like they live in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, the sticks, the boondocks.

Yes.

Oh, and I liked the other one you mentioned too, East Overshoe.

Yeah, I had never heard that before.

I was like, I’ve definitely not heard that one.

It’s near West Galoshes.

Oh, yeah.

These both have a history, and I’ve got a few more to throw in there in a minute.

East Jesus goes back to at least the 1940s.

There’s a story in the Louisville Courier Journal from 1945 where a Lieutenant Bill Riley from Greenwich, Connecticut, was pretending to be a Lieutenant Joe Murphy from East Jesus, Texas.

And he tried to fool a reporter, but the reporter figured it out.

And the reporter asked him, she said, why were you pretending to be this Joe Murphy, this Lieutenant Joe Murphy?

And he says, well, for years, I’ve been sending postcards from all over the country to a non-existent Joe Murphy in a non-existent East Jesus, Texas.

And this is the first mention that I found anywhere of East Jesus.

So I don’t know if this Bill Riley from Greenwich, Connecticut invented it, but we know that at least goes back to 1945.

And there’s plenty of uses of it ever since.

So, yeah, so it doesn’t come from the movie Juno, but I’m sure that that and the Green Day song helped popularize it or keep it alive anyway.

Yeah, for sure.

I love it.

It’s such a good, juicy descriptor, you know.

It’s just kind of a fun thing to say, East Jesus nowhere.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s just a God-fearing country where people go to church, but it’s very far away, and it’s going to take a long time to get there.

East Wilfershire actually is a little older as far as I can tell, 1930s.

It was formerly far more widespread.

People would say East Overshoe, but it’s far less common now.

And some other ones of invented faraway places are South Burlap and West Burlap, West Hell, Balutha Hatchie, Ginny Gall, Back of Beyond, South Succotash.

For years, I’ve said Sal Belly, Arkansas, but I’m from Missouri, so we always like to poke fun at Arkansas.

Hey now, hey now.

I don’t know if anyone else says Sal Belly, Arkansas, but that’s what I say.

I have not heard anyone in Arkansas say that one.

But anyway, that’s fun stuff, Audrey.

It sounds like as a speech pathologist traveling around the country, you’ve not only got the ear for picking up language, you’ve got the opportunity.

Yes, definitely.

I hear a lot of things where I’m like, oh, that’s a little bit different than where it is over here.

You know, just the minute differences in regional languages for sure.

Well, we’re going to deputize you as one of our field reporters, and we require that you report in once in a while, all right?

Absolutely.

Okay, fantastic.

Your badge is in the mail.

Thank you, field worker Audrey.

Thank you for your call.

Thank you so much.

That’s so awesome.

Y’all have a good day.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, whether you’re in East Overshoe or West Burlap, give us a call at 877-929-9673.