Mass Ave View

Nearly every town around here with a population over 30,000 seems to have a Massachusetts Avenue and/or a Commonwealth Avenue. And everyone, even the news radio announcers, refer to them as Mass Ave ("Ave" rhymes with "have") and Comm Ave. When I first moved here It didn't sound right to me. It sounded too much like valley girl speak. But now I do what the locals do and refer to them by their shortened names without even thinking. In fact, now it sounds weird to hear them called Massachusetts Avenue or Commonwealth Avenue. I think only tourists call them them by their full names. This is the Mass Ave in Cambridge.