Amboys Latest
Amboy…what a unique and yet undefined word.
Everyone has heard it in one context or another. Those of us from the East Coast, and the New York Metropolitain Area especially, will likely think of The Amboys exit off of the New Jersey Turnpike. West Coasters or Route 66 fans will undoubtedly recall the home of Roy’s Motel and Cafe, a favorite (apparently) of Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, and the set of various ‘middle-of-nowhere’ scenes in Hollywood films.
There are Amboys in several states (Washington, where it’s adjacent to Mt. Tum Tum; Illinois, where it’s a historical spot for Mormons and railroads) so it must be a catchy name.
Those of us with a background in rock music may call up the sound of Ted Nugent’s first band, The Amboy Dukes, itself a reference to a book (a gritty, possibly exploitative coming-of-age tale about Jewish youth gangs in 1945 Brooklyn). The Amboy was also a Great Lakes ship that went down one blustery November at the beginning of the last century.
You’ll occasionally hear the term come up in conversations between Asians, as sort of a derogatory blend of “American” and “boy”, used to describe someone who is perhaps a little too willing to adopt Western style or mannerisms. I found one blogger who uses it as a sort of self-identifying code word, reflecting not simply his nationality but also to reinforce a subtle but potentially ugly anti-Islamic preoccupation.
What is it about this timeless, almost vaguely iconic name that means nothing, comes from nowhere, and yet has spread to such far corners?
Historically, we’re told by the Perth Amboy folks that the word comes from a Native American source meaning ‘point’ (as in a piece of land on or mostly surrounded by water, a fair description of the area around Perth Amboy). It’s a decent explanation, backed up by a number of historical records, but I don’t quite buy it. There must be something more to “Amboy” for the name to be so familiar…