This to the nth degree. Had it not been for this, I’d probably have a favorable impression of the general St. Louis area (where I completed my last two years of HS). I am continually amazed at the way in which this affects so many current and former St. Louisans (though not all of them, of course–my father’s co-workers, all graduates of acceptable high schools, never made me feel like crap).
In fact, not too long ago, I had a conversation with a fellow grad student who happened to be from Missouri. I did not find this out until we had known each other for some time. In jest (because I figured that people in grad school should be “cosmopolitan” enough not to care), I asked The Question. He responded with the name of an acceptable school, and I told him the name of the festering hellhole that gave me my degree.
“Oh.”
:mad: The guy has not said 10 words to me since that conversation. I really just want to slap him and berate him for a long time, concluding with something like, “One of us is finishing her degree in about half the average time-to-degree, the other has been here since I was attending that crappy high school!!!” :mad: :mad: :mad:
I’ve been back to MO once since I moved away after HS (my family hates it even more than I do). Part of me wants to return because I achieved an important life milestone there, and because going to that crappy high school gave me some badly needed perspective and has influenced me in what I feel is a positive way. My old high school is improving, but still doesn’t appear to have the personnel to really help elite students who want to attend top universities and perhaps pursue advanced degrees–I wouldn’t mind giving a talk or offering to provide advice to these students, but then I have conversations like the one above and I become so filled with rage (and then I remember all the crap I got from my fellow students) that I just say, “screw them all.”
I guess what I hate the most is that I haven’t moved beyond pettiness either.
The OP is incorrect: I lived there almost ten years, and I can personally verify that there are no restaurants in St. Louis. There are places where you can buy food, even places where they’ll bring it to you, but not restaurants. I’ve even waited at some of these places, and yet, I didn’t. Such is the mystery of the Lou.
IMO’s: absolutely the worst food known to man. Triscuit + ketchup + cheese whiz. Wretch and repeat.
Lion’s Choice: absolutely the second worst food known to man. Poor man’s White Castle. 1 in 3 odds of getting in a collision in the drive-through.
The Sanitary Diner: isn’t
And even though I didn’t grow up there, I always got The Question, and I always gave the same answer: Villa Duschene (it’s a Catholic girl’s school. and i’m not a girl. well, anymore. forget it, you had to be there)
It was a great place to live, but I would never want to visit.
This didn’t happen in St Louis, but I was told by the checkout gal at my local Home Depot the other day that I couldn’t pay cash because she didn’t have any change.
Maybe it didn’t occur to her to call and ask for some?
I’ve been to St Louis once. No offense, but nothing I experienced there instilled in me a deep desire to return. I have passed through MO often on the highway–no problems with the drivers there. YMMV.
I think the OP could’ve been talking about any city in the world in which you have some kind of random, atypical, isolated experience. I’ve been visiting St. Louis for about 25 years and lived just across the river for about 2.5 years. It’s like a big, small charming town. There’s not enough time or money for us do do all of the things we’d like to do. There’s an amazing amount of culture and even a lot of free things. Don’t be so quick to judge. If you’re in doubt, let me know, and I’ll give you an extraordinary amount of examples.
No, you are correct and while my teeth were set on edge by a few incidents I have no doubt but that lots of folks in the greater St. Louis area are wonderful.
Unless of course they find out what High School you went to… :eek:
By contrast, I’m in Minneapolist/St. Paul now. I cannot judge how people are behaving- the city is in utter shock.
Ye gods, the only St. Louis foods I’d rate worse than toasted raviolli and provel cheez are brain sandwiches and slingers.
If you really want to have fun with your server in St. Louis, ask them what kind of meat is in their raviolli. About half the time I’ve done this, the answer was “… raviolli meat?” Yeesh.
Shudder. I worked at a non-profit in St Louis the summer of 1987 and we had a booth at the VP Fair. It rained torrentially and the following week I got so feverish and dehydrated I fell to the side if I tried to walk. Woo hoo, got to try out the local hospital.
Now now, he purposely said “New York State”, which takes up a lot more room than The City and can be very different.
As a native Northern Virginian, I would like to point out that the entire region is populated now by the folks you all sent here, who decided that they liked staying here and bitching about Virginia better than going back to wherever the fuck they came from.
Your cast off politicians and left over bureaucrats are not much like the folks I grew up with, back when this was a sleepy little southern region, where courtesy was so common that saying it was expected implies that someone might not be that way.
Have any of you ever dined on the Hill, or south Grand, or the Central West End? Heck, nowadays, there’s even Lafayatte Square, Soulard, and Benton Park – all with what I would argue are real restaurants – or are all of you complainers only refering to Kirkwood, Chesterfield, and other places out in the godforsaken county? I’ve been here in the city for 10 years and only had toasted ravioli twice and Imo’s once, because there’s plenty of other things to choose from, really.
I am talking specifically about the city (see above). There are many perfectly nice people in NYC. Even food service people. There’s also the pizzeria manager who yelled at me because his cashier had charged me the wrong amount for my slice; I hadn’t even picked it up: “Sir! You need to give me more money!”
My point is, there are dicks everywhere.
I haven’t gotten out to Black Thorn yet. I really need to do that.
Look. I’ve already backed down from the frustration in my O.P. That’s pretty evident in my subsequent posts. You can either stop slinging arrows, or not. -shrug- Your call.
In other news, I wish I’d tried some of this fantastic ravioli you are all raving about.
Just noting that three people in a row had responded to earlier posts of mine. Not an assessment of my overall status on the boards.
I know. I wasn’t really talking about the OP anymore. I was responding only to the points mswas and gigi made, which were in response to a point I made way upthread–before you backed down from your frustration. In other words, I was defending my words in the context that I made them, not in the present context, which is relatively calm and polite (as pit threads go).
The ravioli’s fine if you happen to already be here. I wouldn’t go out of your way.
A few more pages of this and we’ll need a new thread for people who’ve visited St. Louis and never managed to get schooled on what is, and is not, proper and acceptable to loathe or love about the place.
By more than one person who spent ten whole years here. My goodness! I’m so impressed my goosebumps are getting all kitty-cattie-caddy cornered to each other.
