Jericho: Bevo Dorks
I was hoping this type of thing would happen. If you look at the blabber-board/guest book to the right today, you'll see the roots of this discussion. Primarily, I put the tag "The Life and Times of the Dorks from Bevo" on this blog. Laura disputes that, reminding me Max is from Holly Hills.
My latest reply was more than 500 characters. So, here we are, the first bloom from the blabber board blossoms on the Blog. Groovy!
Anyway, Laura, I should have been clearer. Yes, where my mom lives now, near Delor, is Bevo. However, I spent the early part of my life just off Broadway. South Broadway that is, Keokuk and Illinois. I spent the first 15 years of my life spitting distance from Highway 55, in the shadow of the City Incinerator's smoke stack. I was also within nose range of the slaughter house, where they nightly cooked off the remains from the killing floor. And, on a good day, I could smell the hoppy sickly-sweetness from the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Quite the lovely combo!
The apartments we lived in were a step above white-trash. But only a step. They were built on what was the City Dump just a hundred years before. Tomatoes grew like weeds there! The closest "landmark" was the Lemp Brewery. There's a whole history of paranoia and murder in the Lemp Mansion, but the brewery is abandoned now - last I heard they were talking about building a mall.
If we didn't have three 7-11's in walking distance there would have been no culture at all. Unless you count Alexian Brothers hospital. Ya know, the place they brought the kid that "The Exorcist" was based on before they took him to SLU.
But, even with all of that, no one cares. Outside of STL, it doesn't matter squat. We're not talking about Manhattan or the Bronx. We're not talking The French Quarter. We're talking St. Louis. Have you heard of Belltown, Pioneer Square or Alki? Probably not, outside of Seattle no one would know or care about these areas, but they are major points on the compass for the locals.
"Bevo" just sounds funnier!
My latest reply was more than 500 characters. So, here we are, the first bloom from the blabber board blossoms on the Blog. Groovy!
Anyway, Laura, I should have been clearer. Yes, where my mom lives now, near Delor, is Bevo. However, I spent the early part of my life just off Broadway. South Broadway that is, Keokuk and Illinois. I spent the first 15 years of my life spitting distance from Highway 55, in the shadow of the City Incinerator's smoke stack. I was also within nose range of the slaughter house, where they nightly cooked off the remains from the killing floor. And, on a good day, I could smell the hoppy sickly-sweetness from the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Quite the lovely combo!
The apartments we lived in were a step above white-trash. But only a step. They were built on what was the City Dump just a hundred years before. Tomatoes grew like weeds there! The closest "landmark" was the Lemp Brewery. There's a whole history of paranoia and murder in the Lemp Mansion, but the brewery is abandoned now - last I heard they were talking about building a mall.
If we didn't have three 7-11's in walking distance there would have been no culture at all. Unless you count Alexian Brothers hospital. Ya know, the place they brought the kid that "The Exorcist" was based on before they took him to SLU.
But, even with all of that, no one cares. Outside of STL, it doesn't matter squat. We're not talking about Manhattan or the Bronx. We're not talking The French Quarter. We're talking St. Louis. Have you heard of Belltown, Pioneer Square or Alki? Probably not, outside of Seattle no one would know or care about these areas, but they are major points on the compass for the locals.
"Bevo" just sounds funnier!
posted by Jericho Brown at 10/13/2003 11:20:00 AM
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