"Please?" Lmao and high school (Cincinnati: college, restaurant)

[goyguy]

"Huron Drugs" on Huron Ave in Cambridge, MA was a fave store name of mine! Some businesses weren't meant to be homonymous with the streets they faced...
Back on track, can anybody venture as to why Cincinnatians have this thing about what high school you went to? Plenty of other cities have parochial-school systems as well as private/prep academies but nowhere else (at least that I've visited or lived or heard about) is the question asked with the expected answer being where you finished 12th grade.

[Crew Chief]

Goyguy, I guess Cincinnati's the first place where I've REALLY been conscious of the importance of what high school you attended. I went to high school in Hollywood, FL part of my high school years and the three schools had very different student bodies. The locals would sometimes put you in a pecking order based on which one you attended. But perhaps it's just more noticed here in the Queen City.

[Hartwell Girl]

I have always thought of the "where did you go to high school" question as more of a "what area in the City did you/ do you live?" Nothing more really. The City is so widespread with each neighborhood in the City of Cincinnati limits having mostly its own neighborhood school. Thats just my thought....

[Ohiogirl81]

Yeah, but Hartwell Girl, nobody goes to public schools ... LOL ... And it just isn't people who grew up in the city limits who ask the question. Nor, what with busing, magnet schools and school consolidation do kids necessarily attend neighborhood schools. And none of the kids in my neighborhood in Madisonville attended public schools -- they all went to parochial schools.

I always interpreted the question -- once I got over the initial shock of anyone giving a rat's behind about where I went to high school -- as a sizing up/social judgement question. If you went to School A, you weren't as smart/rich/socially forward as the kids who'd gone to School B. The natives are extremely conscious of that sort of thing.

[Joe 4520832257]

^ But with the added irony that if you care about where someone went to high school instead of where they went to college ... you're the one who's going to be socially judged.

I've only had a couple people ask me the "high school" question, but it's very weird when it happens. I certainly consider it a sign of provincial behavior. Especially since I grew up in a Sunbelt city (where half the population wasn't even born there and most young people move between cities too) I find it absolutely fascinating that someone would automatically assume that a stranger grew up in the same city in which he currently lives.

[Bigbluelandrover]

I had a interview years ago and the interviewing manager asked me what HS I went to. Now as a black woman the only "acceptable" answer is either Walnut Hills or any Catholic HS. Well I attended one of Cincinnati Public's terrible institutions. He wanted to know what a typical day was like at my school. Well, I pretty much blanked out those years the minute my diploma was in my hand. I wanted to say something smart like "There were fights daily and a ton of pregnant girls". I just told him I didn't remember HS since I had ATTENDED COLLEGE at UC after graduating.

I think this question has a lot to do with demographic/sociological viewpoints. I had a co-worker that attended Walnut Hills and she went to O State and dropped out. She used to find jobs left and right and got hired at places I tried to get hired with. It was like having Walnut Hills on her resume was some advantage.

[goyguy]

It's like living in any Southern state and walking into a job interview with a rockin' transcript from a prestigious - but Northern - college. If the person after you in line
went to that state's flagship university and pledged thus-and-such fraternity or sorority, guess who gets the offer?
I encountered that kind of parochialism up here in MA, but only once. The manager who interviewed me turned out to have gone to Xavier. Despite my not having attended XU or being Catholic or even a west-sider, he said, "I'd hire you on the spot but there's no way that'd get by HR." Just by virtue of our both having Cincinnati roots, that's where I stood. I ended up not getting called back, could've been overcompensation but there was good competition for the job. It's just as well, I think.
I did once score a lease on a "hot" apartment over 22 other people because the grandmother of the departing tenant had a musical background that agreed with mine. The same principle was at work with that. With all else equal, there'll be some coincidence that throws the odds in favor of somebody whether that's right or wrong.
My bias will be out there for all to see, but Cincinnatians may assume that someone newly met is also from there because...who'd want to move there from elsewhere??? (Goyguy ducks under desk in anticipation of responses...)

[Hartwell Girl]

I still think it is people trying to find out what part of the City you are from...

[hillside]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Cincinnatians may assume that someone newly met is also from there because...who'd want to move there from elsewhere??? (Goyguy ducks under desk in anticipation of responses...)

boom.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Cincinnatians may assume that someone newly met is also from there because...who'd want to move there from elsewhere??? (Goyguy ducks under desk in anticipation of responses...)

Yet they're aghast if anyone wants to move from the west side to the east side, let alone leave Cincinnati for another city.