Where Did You Go to High School?




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 it as a snobby thing, it was what is was.

Those of us who grew up in ‘50s or ‘60s in the City of St. Louis saw a lot of things change rapidly.

Our parents were raised in North St. Louis or South St. Louis. As a child, my parents took me frequently to Forest Park. I don't know if we walked to it or took a bus, but we enjoyed those excursions.

I remember taking a street car downtown with my mom. I thought it was the most fun thing ever.

It became a thing of the past for most of us.

As people acquired more wealth, they wanted to move out to the suburbs where they could have their own home and a little piece of land called a backyard.

Many years later, when society became more mobile, people moved to St. Louis from other areas. They came to start a family, to go to college, or both.

As I met these outsiders, many are my good friends now, they couldn't believe that where you attended high school was such a big deal in St. Louis.

In fact, I had no idea that everybody didn't ask that question.

About 10 years ago I was on a YMCA mission trip to the little country of Belize in the Caribbean. I was at the top of a mountain with the group of Belizean children buying some ice cream, believe it or not. I had a Cardinals shirt on. A man came over to me and said, “Oh are you from St. Louis? I replied yes and he said, of course, “Where did you go to high school?” First question out of his mouth. The kids couldn't understand why he would ask me that.

I often wonder now if the young people today ask that same question. St. Louis is so much more diversified, and that's a good thing. Get back to me on that. I'm really interested. 

Comments

  1. rebeccasolomonauthor@wordpress.comJanuary 9, 2018 at 5:09 AM

    That is so amazing to me; where you went to high school did not have the same connotations around here in my part of western KY. Our small town only had (and still has) one high school. For us where you went to high school was mostly about basketball rivalry. There were a few bigger schools we (Dawson Springs) played, and our main rival was the Madisonville Maroons. As far as socioeconomic status, there was not much difference in that, as most people here were on the same level. We never had any other ethnicity at our school, not by design; that's just the way the population demographic fell. Even now there are only a few African-American children at Dawson Springs schools. Interesting insights, Shelly!

    ReplyDelete
  2. IdaJanuary 14, 2018 at 11:52 AM

    You are so right, Shelly!! This is a great blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Older and BetterJanuary 14, 2018 at 2:06 PM

      Thanks for the kind words Ida. I will keep them coming.

      Delete

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