Things I’ll Miss About St. Louis
1. Everything about the St. Louis Cardinals. The team, the players, the stadium, the fans, my seats at the games, the beer man who starts at my seats (“Ain’t no time to think; it’s time to drink!”) the history…everything.
2. The Delmar Loop. It’s the one neighborhood that has evolved with me as I’ve grown up and I’m always finding new and fun reasons to go back and love it all over again.
3. The Hill. So many family memories have been made in those restaurants.
4. While we’re on the subject of food, St. Louis has some good original comforts: toasted ravioli, cannoli from Missouri bakery, Ted Drewes frozen custard, St. Louis smoothie and gooey butter cake just to name a few.
5. The silly turf wars. Every location here has a meaning, and everyone knows it. Sometimes it can seem like a big joke, but it keeps me laughing on the inside.
6. The Budweiser eagle on westbound Highway 40 as you’re leaving downtown. When I was a kid, my siblings and I made up our own urban legend that if you drove past the sign while the eagle was “flying,” your wish came true or you got good luck.
7. Never needing more than 20, 30 minutes tops to drive anywhere.
8. Having “my” places for everything. There’s “my” Steak n’ Shake (Paige and Warson) “my” car guy (Big Bend Auto) “my” movie theater (Creve Coeur 12).
9. Hearing bad rap on the radio every day just because a local artist sang the song. St. Louis rap was a drop in the pan, but people here aren’t ready to let it go. I still brag without shame that I met Chingy (of Holiday Inn fame) at the St. Louis airport with his one-man entourage. Was I starstruck? Yes.
10. The people. My family, my best friend, the homeless lady in the Loop who has just been looking for someone to give her bus fare since I was 12….everyone means so much to me and I’ll miss them terribly.
