Been here for 3 months, no one has asked me where I went to high school yet! (Cincinnati: houses, high schools)

[Joeytraveler]

It happens occasionally but I'd agree it more of a "we're did you grow up?" question. The westside doesn't have the clearest of borders and saying you're from Mack, Bridgetown, green township etc etc don't always shed much light on the situation. I've only had one odd encounter with the high school question and it was while interviewing at a large family owned company. It was an odd vibe, and talked about way to much and in somewhat inappropriate manners. But hey that's only one truly odd incident in many years.

[SoFresh99]

At his new job everyone asks DH why he moved to Cincinnati, and when he tells them that I am from here they always ask where I went to HS. It is just to establish what part of town you are from and see if you know any of the same people. I don't see it as trying to establish tribe lines so as to exclude someone. Since moving back I can tell you that where people come from has come up in every conversation I have had when meeting someone, but that may be because we just moved.

Being from Cincinnati, I find this normal, however what I hated in living in Boston was everyone's IMMEDIATE demand to know what I did for a living. That was literally the second sentence out of someone's mouth when I met them. I'll take "What HS did you go?" worked naturally into a conversation any day over Boston's blurting attempts to establish my identity by my occupation.

Only one person has conversationally asked what DH or I do for a living since we moved back. It's been nice.

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

Being from Cincinnati, I find this normal, however what I hated in living in Boston was everyone's IMMEDIATE demand to know what I did for a living.

LMAO!!! So true!!!
The only time this doesn't happen is during the getting-to-know-you conversation with new neighbors. But even then it comes up soon enough. To me it seems a simple, inoffensive, way to keep talk flowing. Most people spend the bulk of their time in an occupation of some kind from their teens to their seventies. So why not inquire?
Across the generations one thing that never changes on a college campus is how the new students stand out by their wearing something representing their hometown. It's a natural way to psychologically maintain ties while inviting an unmet person to remark, "You're from there? Do you know...?" By the second academic term the newbie is usually assimilated and the hometown gear stays put away. But not always. Recently one of my nephews, a college sophomore in a school not near Cincy, let on that he still represented his high school sometimes when he dressed. I told him, "You don't rep your high school after first semester of your first year." His grandfather retorted, "In Cincinnati you do!"
Cincinnati is still the ONLY place I've been where the question of where you went to school pertains to where you spent grades 9 to 12. On the one hand it's refreshing in a non-elitist way. But you can be sure it's a way of sizing someone up and freeing assumptions. My home 'burb was a popular place for tycoons of local industry to settle around the turn of the 20th Century. It was a prime landing spot during the social upheavals along Reading Road in the 1960's and '70s. And it has an all-too-well-earned reputation for snobbery. So when somebody finds out I grew up in Wyoming and graduated from its high school, I can assert that I'm not "from money" and that I'm not Jewish "as if that should matter." The third assumption isn't as easily shaken at first, though.
Still, it's preferable to what's often asked down South - what church do you attend?

[joe from dayton]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

You say sad, why? It was simply to establish a fact. For many of the people involved, HS was the terminus of their education. Are they to be rediculed for that? I don't think so. So It was a natural reaction among the blue-collar and working poor to inquire which HS you went to. If people find that disruptive, so be it. I find it more of an indication as to how working class people in Cincy communicated.

I didn't "redicule" anyone or say it was "disruptive."

[kimberlymarie30]

Apparently, goyguy has never been to Louisville. Same question about high school, and it means the same thing to the people there. The answer allows them to place you in a certain area of town along with all the assumptions that goes with that information. My greatest joy was always telling people, I'm not from here. It keeps them on their toes.

[Chemistry_Guy]

A lot of people are missing the point. Attending certain high schools makes you part of a "club" of sorts where people prefer to socialize with others in that group. When I meet someone new, the reason I ask what high school they went to is that I don't want to waste my time interacting with someone who I can never be friends with because they didn't go to the shortlist of schools.

It might not be fair to everyone, but it maintains the social order. Without this attitude, Cincinnati would descend into chaos, with public school graduates going to the same happy hours as GCL graduates. Heck, you would probably have eastsiders going bowling and westsiders going to sushi restaurants. None of us want that, so it is safer to stay in the comfort zone of our high school social circles.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Chemistry_Guy

It might not be fair to everyone, but it maintains the social order. Without this attitude, Cincinnati would descend into chaos, with public school graduates going to the same happy hours as GCL graduates. Heck, you would probably have eastsiders going bowling and westsiders going to sushi restaurants. None of us want that, so it is safer to stay in the comfort zone of our high school social circles.

LMAO.

But how does this explain the wild popularity of Madison Bowl?

[Chemistry_Guy]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

LMAO.

But how does this explain the wild popularity of Madison Bowl?

Westside immigrants.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Chemistry_Guy

Westside immigrants.

Oh, come on ... You know that's not allowed!

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by kimberlymarie30

Apparently, goyguy has never been to Louisville. Same question about high school, and it means the same thing to the people there. The answer allows them to place you in a certain area of town along with all the assumptions that goes with that information. My greatest joy was always telling people, I'm not from here. It keeps them on their toes.

And St. Louis is even worse.