“Nashville Community High School,” I respond to quizzical looking faces. “Oh, you’re from Tennessee, you don’t have an accent at all.” “No, Nashville, IL, it’s a small town about an hour east of St. Louis.” *Blank stare* “Oh.”
It’s been 8 years since I first started working in St. Louis and I’m pretty certain I’ve had this conversation thousands of times. I had no idea what was going on, how strange is it that people are asking me this when obviously it had been years since I went to high school. Finally a native of the city informed me that they are really asking me what part of town I grew up in, what my background is, what kind of family I came from, what type of means I have. WOW, that’s a loaded question. I still answer this question in the same way most of the time.
I somehow feel it would not be appropriate for me to answer with “Well, I grew up in a really small farming town in Southern Illinois, my parents were very involved, we were middle class with a nice four bedroom house, big back yard, sports were really important, so were academics, we went to church on Sundays, my dad was a teacher, it wasn’t a very diverse community but it wasn’t backwards.” Despite the fact that this is what they are asking for I don’t think it would go over very well, or maybe it would. Often my answer is a simple “I’m not origianlly from St. Louis.”
Has anyone who is not from St. Louis found a good way to navigate this question? Any advice from those who often find they are askers of this question?
Brought to you by: Mills Properties Photo Courtesy of: Town Maps USA
