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

[WestCoDude]

Since this really is THE only St. Louis question worthy of tireless investigation...I thought I would ask it.

Unfortunately, I didn't grow up here. And a few weeks after my move to the area I finally caught onto the whole "where did you go to high school" routine. I realized that, yes, you CAN in fact know all you need to know about somebody in St. Louis just by knowing what high school they went to. So I decided I would really impress upon people my pedigree by telling the next person who asked my high school that I was a proud graduate of Nerinx Hall. A few very hot girls at my church wore Nerinx Hall hoodies and I saw lots of the school's bumperstickers on West County Lexuses and BMWs....so I figured anybody who's anybody goes to Nerinx Hall. I didn't realize, however, that it's not the sort of schoo a guy like me (or any other guy for that matter) goes to. Here's how it went down:

Lady in Chesterfield: So where did you go to high school?

Me (college boy): *flexes muscles knowing how awesome and impressive his answer would (should) be* Nerinx Hall! Class of '02!!!

Lady: You went where??????

Me: I went to Nerinx Hall. Have you heard of it?

Lady: Uh.....yeah. But....uh....

Me: I know. I know. My parents are kind of a big deal.

Lady: But it's an all-girls school!!

Well, needless to say I stopped pretending from that point forward. So for those of you raised here...where DID you go to high school?

[Westyguy]

If you love St Louis so much why are you moving??????

[WestCoDude]

Originally Posted by Westyguy

If you love St Louis so much why are you moving??????

I'm not moving.

[RickMG]

I had to look closely at the last three posts. First, your story, then again to see when you said you were moving, and then with the similarities in the names, I thought you were talking to yourself.

Okay, I went to Ladue, class of '68. My kids graduated from Pkwy. Central '96 & '01.

[aragx6]

Francis Howell North Class of '03

My parents: Mom- Parkway Central class of '74, Dad- Parkway Central dropout class of '72 (Hey it was the 70s and he was doing a lot of drugs tee hee)

[lovethewest]

Me - Oakville (unfortunately) class of '08
Brother - Oakville class of '05
Brother - Oakville class of '03
Brother - St. Mary's class of '01
Brother - Riverton (Wyoming) - class of '99
Mom - Rosary class of '69
Dad - CBC class of '68

[Bobster]

Southwest High class of 79...(god, I'm old!)

[Fishtacos]

This topic would be on my list of things I like least about St. Louis. It's something I've never experienced anywhere else, and something I simply don't enjoy. I did grow up in St. Louis and did go to high school in St. Louis, before relocating, and actually enjoyed my high school experience a great deal, and would recommend my high school highly to anyone who asked. I do also enjoy St. Louis a great deal of course and still spend a lot of time in St. Louis.

I have a few friends who've recently moved back to St. Louis and immediately were reminded of the whole high school mentality, and they simply say they were home schooled or from out of town and usually the other person asking quickly loses interest in them and walks away.

I generally think I have a good tolerance for things and a sense of humor, but where there's smoke there's fire, and despite the friendliness and simpleness of the topic, to me it represents the fragmented mentality of a medium sized metro area, or big small town if you will, and the sizing up one person vs another. I'm just not a fan.

It's sort of remniscent of the person who enters a party and the first thing they strike up in conversation is, "So, what do you do?"...because they can't think of anything else to say.

[aragx6]

I'll agree that it's a little elitest (Ok probably a lot elitest), and sometimes I do wonder what people will think when I say Francis Howell, but when you're far from home and meet someone from St. Louis and you can have a good laugh about this, it makes you feel like home isn't so far away after all.

Fishtacos, you;re honestly telling me you've never gone to a party and asked someone what they did for a living? It's a big part of who a person is, and it is a great way to start a convo with someone.

[Bobster]

Fish.....I used to tell people Sumner...but that was before they started busing kids around as much as they do now... I have wondered if some people did this to as a shorthand to see if you went to the "right" school, but everybody here seems to do it, so I don't really know that it's elitist??