Say What?

I was born in and raised in a small Ohio town called Zanesville. Easy to say. Easy to spell. Not many variations on either. I guess I was lucky all those years. If someone shook their head in my "Zanesville" response - it was usually because they didn't know where it was located - not because it had a different pronunciations.

I've had my share of living in towns that don't quite have the same easy sound as Zanesville. At 23 I moved to Topsail Island, North Carolina. You'd think Topsail would be easy to say and understand. It took me at least 4 months to realize the Topsol Island and Topsail Island were the same place. I guess it is easy to weed out foreigners - strange folk would say Topsail and locals would shake their heads and giggle amongst themselves. I never did pronounce it correctly.

Topsol took us to Camp Lejeune, NC. Ok - this could be a hard one - but pretty much everyone calls it Camp Lejune. Unless you're over 40 - then you reach back to the French and suddenly your walking around saying Lejurn. True story. At the age of 40 you must submit to the French pronunciation. It was true in the 1980's - and it still holds true today. Those youngsters don't even know what they're saying.

Then on to Kentucky - home of the most garbled name I've ever heard for a city...Louisville. Growing up where I did - we said Lewieville. Imagine my surprised to find Kentuckians refer to this great city as Lllvlll. You almost have to swallow to say it correctly. I found myself saying Lllvlll a about a year into our sojourn. I found myself saying Lewieville again the day after we moved out of the state.

Onto Fort Leonard Wood. Not much you can do with that. Except it's located in Missouri. Or to the uninformed - Missourah. Never did figure that out - nor did I succumb to saying the "ah." I sleep easy at night knowing I could never pass for a Missouri local.

We then found ourselves in Okinawa, Japan. That really is a whole other post. Okinawwa vs Okinowa. Futenma vs Futeenma. Gushikawa vs Kitanakagusku. Another day.

New Orleans! Oh no! I was flogged for three years because I said New Orleans. Neighbors from the Crescent City would ask me what city I lived in just to mock me. Everyone knows it's New Orlins. Or N'awlins. Or Norlins. I could never do it.

Later we moved to Richlands, NC. But don't say it like you just did. Say it Rich Lands. Richlands makes it sound like your in a hurry. It's Rich Lands. I still say that. I think it sounds nicer.

Not too much going on in Havelock, NC. Fairly easy to pronounce - although a lot like to say Havenot. Visit there sometime. You'll understand why.

Then we receive orders to Norfolk. My whole life I would say Norfolk. Oh no. Norfick or Norfuk. That's why we live in Chesapeake.

We're getting ready to move again - this time to Northern Virginia and a little town called Quantico. I'm anticipating a lot of fun with this one! Lot's of mangled letters and vowels.

I miss Zanesville.