After leaving Lexington we grabbed our trusty road map and headed for Midway Kentucky. It was a short drive just 15 miles to the northwest. Now bob told us that near Midway was the small town of Versailles and that was the place where a lot of local the tobacco farms were located.
I have always had an,"ear," for languages. Being from Southern California I picked up Spanish pretty easily. Even when I hear someone speaking very foreign languages such as Japanese or Chinese I can't understand them but I can discern words where others only hear a string of gibberish. Most of our motley crew were from the state of New York. Kevin was from Buffalo, Tig was from near Woodstock, and Victor was from Hell's Kitchen Manhattan New York City. So the heavy Kentucky southern dialect might as well been farsi to these guys. So Kevin started asking around for folks to point us to Versailles. They would look at him funny and shrug their shoulders and say never. Heard of that. Finally
Kevin said, " let's let Davy ask, he speaks that shit."
I honestly couldn't see the problem I understood those folks perfectly.
So I was really confused as I was getting the same reaction when I asked for directions. Finally when I asked one guy I showed him the road map and pointed to Versailles. He said, "Oh you mean Ver-sales." Obviously We had been using the French pronunciation, "Ver-sighs"
It might as well have been Timbuktu to them.
Of course my high school history was where I got the name, You know, The Treaty of Paris Sept. 3 1783 was signed at Versailles which formally ended the American Revolutionary War. And the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 formally ended World War One. But I guess all that was lost to the good folks of midway Kentucky. So all I could say to that gentleman was, "Silly Me."
And he told me how to get to Ver-sales.