Having been raised in this crossroads of the world and coming from the cosmopolitan area of South Broadway I must add my thoughts. How many of youse guys realize that at one time all the Hollywood stars were taught to speak with the Mid Western accent? One of the most popular stars during the 40's & 50's was from Dallas Texas, but nobody could understand her, thus language classes. They had to get the Cubers out of the East Coast people. Just listen to some of the old movie dialogue, it was all Mid West. When I went to Flight School in Florida in the mid 1950's it was next to impossible to understand the accent. Now that all the "Snow Birds" have been down there the accent has all but disappeared. I have one daughter who still has a West Texas Drawl and she only lived there for the first two years of her life, she is now 44, you can take them out of Texas but they are still Texans. I spent some 20 years away from St. Louis after spending 20 years growing up in the area. Some of the first things I remember was the RC Cola I always got at my Great Uncle's house in Belleville, I thought it could only be bought in Belleville. One of the men I was stationed with in Arkansas, drove through St. Louis and stopped by my dad's tavern (we were both being transferred to Delaware), he ordered a Scotch and Soda. He thought my mother poisoned him. She had given him Scotch with 7-up. She then made him another drink with Scotch and Sparkling Water (also bad), the third drink was Scotch and tap water. What else could you expect from a girl raised in the up and coming neighborhood of Jefferson & Cass during the 1910-20 era, over the Hogan Brothers Saloon, these were current political leaders in St. Louis at the time and one even became a Missouri Senator. Coke was just that Coke, no Cola was added to the name until it was politically correct, people today are shocked when they hear that it originally got it flavoring from the real stuff Jefferson City was known as Jeff and when I referred to it as "down there" my mother-in-law corrected me to let me know that it was not "down" but "up". What did she know she always used that funny "you all" comment. Then the differentiation between "downtown" in St. Louis when it didn't make any difference where you lived, but in Belleville you went "uptown" believe they also used "uptown" in Jeff. Is it Downtown in large cities and Uptown in small cities? When my Grandfather "Grandpa" visited Belleville he reverted to his Belleville accent and greeted people with his "How Do" for hello. We went "over" to Belleville to visit my Great Grandparents, only knowing them as "Maw" and "Paw". Belleville and St. Louis swapped other things as well, in the 40's and 50's those fashion conscious women in Belleville shopped for their clothes in St. Louis, while the women in St. Louis "In the know" shopped for theirs in Belleville, go figure. I was so brain washed by the Lincoln mystic that I thought that the Capital Cities of all States were named Springfield, that is until the nuns literally pounded it into me, that Jefferson City was the Capital of Missoureeeeee and that Illinois was pronounced with a quiet "s", I always wondered why not use it, it was there, oh well. I was always a bit embarrassed when our Governor & now Senator Kit Bond pronounced it Missoura, I just figured he didn't know any better being from western Missoureeeee, the nuns had to be correct they always were and I had the bumps to prove it, maybe they were all from Eastern Missouri and Illinoise Believe some one else mentioned it but why is it Des Plaines in Illinois and DeeMoine in Iowa and Dee Pair in Missouri, don't they all start with "DES"? I knew I had returned home in 1975 when the waitress at the Steak and Shake asked "What can I get youse guys". What's wrong with Fortee and Carn on the Cob, and whoever heard of Sweet Carn back in the old days only Carn that stuck to your teeth was fit to eat, it had kernels that you could chew. I never knew that Sweet Corn existed until I lived in Delaware where they served the Field Corn to the animals and we humans had to eat Sweet Corn. Surnames of Interest: BUCHHOLZ anywhere -BECKMANN-CASSIDY-DeL0NJAY-DREES-MOSBACHER-NENTWIG-NEUTZLER-PONCOT-RENSIN G-STAUDER-STIEFFERMANN ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!