Versailles Indiana (I love It) but I'm a little Weird

I was looking for a nice photo of Versailles Indiana and ran across this post. I read it top to bottom and thought it to be a wee bit discomforting about where I have lived for 99% of my life. You see I love Versailles, Indiana and have traveled to many parts of this great U.S. of A. and unless I was forced, I would not live anyplace else. Please read the below post from Cara Randall, living near Milan, Then send me your thoughts about Versailles. If you like I can post your reply. Send it to jack.demaree@gmail.com

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CaraRandall
Junior Member

http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/262103-versailles-nice-place-raise-family.html

Join Date: Mar 2008
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CaraRandall is on a distinguished road
Default Versailles

I'm not sure where you are coming from, but Versailles can be an okay place to live. It has the Versailles Pumpkin Show in the fall, a nice Dairy Queen, a couple of discount stores, McDonalds...errr, that's about it. I like the park particularly well. But I can't imagine why anyone would want to come to Ripley County, actually, unless they were retiring and didn't need to worry about work. Most people travel an hour or more to find decent jobs, as Ripley County is one of the poorest counties in Indiana. I have lived here for most of my life, and my husband and I built a home just outside of Milan (about fifteen minutes from Versailles) on five acres of my Grandfather's farm. I enjoy, and always have enjoyed, living in the country, but even I am getting sick of having to drive to Cincy for decent opportunities or entertainment.

I'm also not sure how hard it is to break into teaching in this area. There are a lot of schools, and really I've always been of the opinion that if you are determined to get an education, you will get an education. Are the schools great? Not really. They rank among the lower achievers in the state. I'm not going to sugar coat this area. It has good community that I enjoy, nice small-town flavor, if you like living in the country it's nice and peaceful. Low crime rates, I think there are some petty burglaries and the like in Versailles, but not much else. But frankly, there is not much happening in Ripley County. There are a lot of sad, rundown properties that have been abandoned and left to rot here and there, there are not a lot of job opportunities, not a lot of entertainment.

But it purely depends on what you are looking for. If you like a small town with a very slow pace, then it might be your thing. Versailles has nothing going on during the weekends, other than perhaps bowling and people getting drunk and driving around the courthouse square over and over to scope out chicks. There are always chicken fry dinners going on at the local churches, the Friendship Fleamarket in June and Sept, which is a huge fleamarket centered around the banks of Laughery Creek during the Muzzleloader Shoot (lots of pioneer reenactment stuff, really neat to go to-my fave thing in this area all year).

Gosh, I don't know what else to tell you. I guess I'm not very positive about it, but it truly is a very poor county and I can't imagine anyone deliberately coming here and expecting much. When the most active spots in your town are the Dairy Queen, the Family Dollar, and the funeral parlor, you know your town is pretty goofy. Milan isn't any more interesting...in fact it's not as interesting as Versailles. All Milan thinks about is that they won the 1954 basketball championship, so, hey, what else do they have to do?

People are friendlier here, more interested in community, and I like that. They are more interested in other people. I like farming and I like being left alone, so it's a good area for those things. I like people you can count on, and country people are good for that. I'm trying to present the good and the bad. There are a lot of sports in the schools, and so your children would probably be happy with that. It's hard for me to guess what it is you hope to find here, but I wish you all the luck and happiness I can wish. These are just my opinions, and you'll have to form your own.

Blessings,
Cara

.................... reply from B.D. ..................

In response to Cara's interpretation of the advantages and disadvantages of living in a small town, I say this.
I have lived in a small town all my life but I have ventured many times to the "Big City." I lived in Monterey California for almost a year and visited the grand "New York City" a couple of years ago. Of course we are surrounded by larger cities than Versailles or Milan and for me, it really doesn't present a problem to go twenty or thirty minutes out of town for fun, a pleasant dinner out, or your most important excursion to Walmart.
My younger school years were spent at Milan. After I got married I eventually moved to Versailles. Yes, it is slightly boring. Yes, it is quiet however........I awake in the morning and spend a relaxing hour or whatever time I might have, with a hot cup of coffee and I listen to a beautiful serenade from the birds in my many trees and those gathered around the feeder. My back deck faces a pasture and I can see the cows and their calves grazing as though they have endless time, and they do.
Small towns are guilty of persistent gossip. Sometimes by the time a rumor gets around town it's history. Each person evaluates and dissects what was told and it gets revisited at the local barber shop or salon. I guess it's all in how you look at it, some would see simple charm, some would be somewhat angered, I suppose.
Everyone knows their neighbor but we all tend to look out for each other. We don't worry too much about leaving our lawn mower outside waiting to complete the mowing the next day. We don't padlock our bicycles at night.
Time that has passed and a change in our world has caused many to be a little more cautious but as a whole we that live in a small town tend to be a tad naive. We still trust more than we should perhaps.
I drove to the big city of Columbus this week and along the highway was a trailer court with trailers spaced not more than five or six feet apart. I saw children getting off the school bus and walking up to their individual homes with no yards to speak of. I guess it's whatever you get used to. For me, I'll be here until my day is done on this earth. Hopefully, my small town won't get much larger until then.
I heard a song on the radio today and it pretty much wraps all of this up and it only proves true in an area like I live in. "Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town."