I was curious as to why we came to call the main street a "drag" and whether the origins were at all related to "drag" racing.
The internet tells me it was an American (U.S.) expression first coined in the 1920's and that yes, drag racing referred to racing up the main street.
I guess that makes it a fairly rare piece of Australian slang, where most of the origins came from the other side of the Atlantic.
Here is the main drag in Woombye. We can tell that's where we are because that's the Woombye butchery, and the Woombye Bakery on each corner, and I think we need to celebrate the fact that this town has both of those businesses still operating prominently. Long may they live!
Woombye.
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In the fifties bodgies used to do drag races in the main streets of towns on Saturday nights.
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