So...where did YOU go to high school? (St. Louis, Chesterfield: chapel, wedding)

[alikat1205]

I never thought about it, but maybe it is a Catholic thing, as I am from New Orleans, and this question is just as common there (and a highly Catholic city).

[DeBaliviere]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

That was the question that I HATED the MOST in the eight years I lived in St. Louis because it generally set the tone for the rest of the evening.

If I answered, "I was raised in Cincinnati", I could pretty much be left alone for the rest of the evening. (YAWN!)

If I would avoid the question, people would ignore me and I would come across as a pompous ass.

If I would say Chaminade High School (as my high school was affiliated with that school), people would then open up and be friendly to a point.

What I was wondering is this. Is this a Catholic thing in St. Louis or is it pretty much across the board. When I hung out with non-Catholics in St. Louis, the entire topic rarely came up. In Catholic groups, the SLUH, CBC, and various other groups would segregate based on school attendance.

What, you didn't go to St. X? (Just kidding)

I've actually heard the high school question asked among Cincinnatians as well.

[desperad0stl]

Originally Posted by aragx6

OHHHHH You're from Ladue. that makes your dislike of St. Louis make so much more sense.

I bet you are back in St. Louis within 10 years ... wanna bet?

Nah I'm from St. Louis city grew up there all of my moms family is there...I was fortunate enough to go to Ladue HS and progress a bit as I got older.

My hate goes deep son
I'll be back...lets say never.

[AJohnston_STL]

I've lived in STL for over a year and never once been asked this question from people who don't know I'm a transplant. I've also never heard anyone ask anyone else that.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by AJohnston_STL

I've lived in STL for over a year and never once been asked this question from people who don't know I'm a transplant. I've also never heard anyone ask anyone else that.

Congratulations?

[Smtchll]

This doesn't happen much in the city where i'm from (Memphis) It really wouldn't work the same way as in St. Louis because the demographics of the schools around here have changed so much over the past few decades. If I were to ask someone older "what high school did you go to?" They might answer with the name of a high school that is really rough today, but was really nice decades ago. See, when you ask the high school question in Memphis, it doesn't reveal much about that person. I guess it would work with private schools though.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

That was the question that I HATED the MOST in the eight years I lived in St. Louis because it generally set the tone for the rest of the evening.

If I answered, "I was raised in Cincinnati", I could pretty much be left alone for the rest of the evening. (YAWN!)

If I would avoid the question, people would ignore me and I would come across as a pompous ass.

If I would say Chaminade High School (as my high school was affiliated with that school), people would then open up and be friendly to a point.

What I was wondering is this. Is this a Catholic thing in St. Louis or is it pretty much across the board. When I hung out with non-Catholics in St. Louis, the entire topic rarely came up. In Catholic groups, the SLUH, CBC, and various other groups would segregate based on school attendance.

Maybe it's not a Catholic thing, maybe it's just a high society thing. I'm assuming that many of the old money families of St. Louis are Catholic. These families have probably been sending their kids to the same Catholic high schools for generations so they have a lot of pride in what high school they went to. The same thing happens with WASPy private schools in Memphis. There's a lot of prestige attached to certain schools: MUS for boys, Hutchison for girls. In wealthy Catholic circles it's CBHS for boys & St. Agnes for girls.

[jskirwin]

Originally Posted by desperad0stl

Nah I'm from St. Louis city grew up there all of my moms family is there...I was fortunate enough to go to Ladue HS and progress a bit as I got older.

My hate goes deep son
I'll be back...lets say never.

I used to hate that city. I couldn't get away from it fast enough. As soon as I could I left and everytime I visited I couldn't wait to get back on the plane to get out of there. I felt that the city had a thick rubberband tied to my waist that I could never break.

Then I grew up, traveled a bit, and eventually settled down to raise a family. My trips to STL are rare, but when I do get there I'm not in such a hurry to leave. I long ago realized that the rubberband was in my head.

Now my home is on the East Coast, and I can appreciate St. Louis for what it is: a great town to be from filled with decent hardworking people for the most part. It has it's own unique history and culture.

I'm sure there are good reasons to dislike STL but speaking as someone whose opinion has changed about his hometown, I am proud to be from there and wish it the best (starting with a better football team).

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by AJohnston_STL

I've lived in STL for over a year and never once been asked this question from people who don't know I'm a transplant. I've also never heard anyone ask anyone else that.

Give it time.

[HCC]

This is late in coming, but in case someone reads this, I thought I'd chime in. I'll give you an example of how this question works in STL. I moved back to STL after college for a year to give it a chance, see if there was anything there for me, make my parents happy, ect, ect... I lived across from Forest Park in the West End in a great, old high rise, with a door man and a corner apt overlooking the park. With gated parking, work out rooms, ect, it was only $640/month!!! Can't beat THAT! Anyway, I was determined to get involved in my community, volunteer, go to cultural things, meet the love of my life, find a great job, make new friends... My father got me a membership to the STL Art Museum. I decided to go to an event they had one summer night for the 20s/30s crowd. I showed up and a 30-something Clayton couple started talking to me. They seemed enlightened, even for STL. Of course all they were interested in hearing was where I went to high school. I said, "I went to Westminster." Well, that was all they needed to hear and they sniffed, "Oh..." Their eyes glazed over and they just walked away. They couldn't care less where I went to college, where I had lived, traveled or what my ambitions were. I didn't meet their expectations based on that question and they had no use for me.

There were 2 attitudes I found over and over in STL in meeting people. One was something like, "Well, if I haven't met you by now, why on earth would I want to get to know you!" The second was this idea that one should just be friends with the same people they went to high school with the rest of their lives. Unless they were looking to upgrade to meet someone who went to a better high school than they did. It isn't called the "Show-Me State" for nothing. Eventually, I was frustrated and found these attitudes so completely narrowing and boring. I now live in NY, where most people think of STL as one big trailer park, which is also frustrating and ridiculous.

However to give in, slightly, I will answer one of the questions posted here. The top schools, at least in people's minds, are, (pretty much in this order):

Private, non-sectarian-
Mary Institute-Country Day School, John Burroughs School

Catholic-
boys-Priory, though Chamanade gets points by sheer location
girls-Villa, Visitation Academy

Public-
Ladue, Clayton, though Clayton is superior to Ladue academically, at least it was.
Also, most people who went to Ladue weren't even people who actually lived in Ladue. Most Ladue residents sent their kids to private schools and the student body was mostly made up of 63141, St Louis Annex kids and a large inner city, bused-in population, mixed with local Ladue-ites who either couldn't afford or couldn't cut it at a private school. Sorry, but that was the reality and I know this as I grew up almost across the street from Ladue High School.
You could maybe get away with Parkway Central, but I remember people sneering at Parkway West and North and South were out of the question.

Close, but not quite-
Thomas Jefferson School- yes, it may be the closest thing in STL to a real New England boarding school and the kids are something out of a Wes Anderson film, but it is too small and is located in South County and thus, will never be taken seriously in STL.
Westminster- ok, I went here, so I can rag on it. It has a good location, Ladue/Spoede, but it is too young (only founded in the 70s) and the word Christian conjures up images of scary, cross burning, right-winger, Fox News-watching bigots and sadly, that's not far from the truth.
St Joseph's Academy- Ok, it really isn't bad to say you went here, but let's face it... stocky, hard-drinkin', field hockey girls from Kirkwood go here.
De Smet- Too diverse to ever be respectable.
St Louis University High School-it's located in the city. Enough to scare most St Louisians to the core.
CBC- I guess it qualifies, but, not really...
Whitfield- Everyone knows this is like a fake private school, though I've heard it's come up since my days there.
Nerix Hall- See St Joseph's Academy for more details. Just substitute, Webster for Kirkwood.
Cor Jesu- Totally underrated. Academically superior to any Catholic girls school in the area, but it's in Affton.

You see how stupid this all is? And this is how people are branded the rest of their lives. If your school wasn't mentioned, I mean, what does THAT say? I moved to NYC where the first question is, "What do you do?"