Older and Better with Shelly

I always knew that my generation was special. Even before the word “Boomer” was in my vocabulary. I remember seeing my little old grandmother, who probably wasn't that old but looked ancient to me, walking around in those old lady dresses. She also had those high top black lace shoes. I made up my mind right then and there that when I got old, I would walk barefooted before I wore those shoes. Funny how those born in the ‘40s and ‘50s all wanted to be a little bit different. Looking back, what really defined our generation was the music. It broke the mold of the old fashion ballads of yesteryear. With our music came dance and plenty of it. It seems like there was a new dance almost monthly. And new music to go with it. In my teen mind it was very important to keep up with the dance trends and learn how to do them all. Besides the Jitterbug, which was our staple, we had the Twist, the Stroll and many others. Life was so much simpler back then. On...

Where did you go to high school? I did not realize that question was a coined phrase seemingly originating and owned by St. Louisans. Growing up we all pretty much stayed in our neighborhoods, shopped in our neighborhoods and had friends in our neighborhood. Transportation wasn't easy back then and not everyone had a car. You wanted to live in the area where both your family and your school were close by. Back in the day St. Louis had its own geographic divisions separated by wealth and religion. Certain religions, and certain races, were not allowed to live in some areas. Was it fair, no, could we do anything about it at the time, not much. The area was separated by those that went to private school, the very wealthy, or were Catholic. That was that. So when you met somebody from St. Louis and you asked where they went to high school that immediately told you the financial status of their family and maybe their religion. I never looked on...