This now-derelict tin roofed cabin was the childhood home of actress Faye Dunaway. (QMI Agency/Mitchell Smyth)

TWO EGG, Fla. -- It's not a yolk, readers. This Panhandle hamlet really is called Two Egg. But how did a name like that get hatched?

Nell Lawrence King, who for many years operated the general store, got asked that all the time for her store was more or less the centre of social life here and the first place tourists visited.

"It was originally called Allison," she says. "Back then there was a man called Will Williams on a farm here. He had 57 children by three wives. He wasn't able to give them pocket money so as each child turned six he gave them their own hen.

"The kids would walk to the store and exchange the eggs for sodas and candy. Two eggs was all the little ones could carry, one in each hand. A 'drummer' (rural travelling salesman) noticed the kids coming in every time he was here and he named the place Two Egg. The name stuck."

Local author Dale Cox says the renaming of the town has great significance to the times: The Great Depression of the 1930s.

"It reflects an effort to put a good face on very hard times," he writes.

Cox believes the eggs were mostly exchanged for sugar.

"A little sugar added to the diet each day provided just enough energy to help struggling families make it through to the next day," he writes, adding it is difficult to conceive that idea in today's era of low-carb diets.

King is now retired and the general store -- a single storey wood frame building -- is closed. She still has its visitors book, with this entry: "Sept. 2, 1992. Faye Dunaway, Beverly Hills." Two Egg was the childhood home of Academy Award winner Dunaway, star of Network, Bonnie and Clyde, and dozens of other big-screen and TV movies.

Beside a dirt road that leads off County Road 69 I found a dilapidated wooden shack, with a tin roof and broken windows. This is where the young Dunaway lived. I doubt if she ever traded eggs for sugar. Born in 1941, she grew up in post-Depression America.

"My husband went to school with Faye Dunaway. When she came in 1992, she stayed for a good 30 minutes and talked to all the customers. She was interested to know if any of them had known her dad," King says.

Two Egg has a population of 38. Or maybe it's 39. People who venture into the swamps and woods between the town and the Chatahoochee River have reported seeing a hairy, human-like being that walks on two legs. It's about the size of a man and locals call it the mini-Bigfoot.

In case you blink and miss Two Egg -- yes, it's that small -- the name is on signs on the outskirts. But sometimes they're not. Department of Transportation officials say the Two Egg signs are prized by souvenir hunters and are the most stolen signs in the state.

GETTING THERE

To reach Two Egg, take Exit 152 off Interstate 10 and drive north on County Road 69. The hamlet is just off 69, on Route 69A. Florida tourist information is available at visitflorida.com.