Memoirs from a South Side neighborhood '78 to '89.
Life as I knew it in urban St. Louis.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Apologies to the St. Louis Bloggers who read me, for the bad timing with the Quinn story. I hadn't checked STLBloggers, and didn't know Mae and Matt got to celebrate a new addition today. Congrats, you two! You're in for a fabulous roller coaster ride!
Drunk Any person under the influence of alcohol who urinates on a house, enters without knocking or ruins a perfectly good window by throwing another drunk through it.
Hoosier (hooz-yer)-The St. Louis term for a low-income caucasion. A redneck. Someone you might see on Jerry Springer. Has nothing to do with the residents of Indiana.
House A place of residence with it's own entry door. If you have to go through a communal door to get to your personal door, you live in an apartment.
Narc Originally meaning "undercover narcotics officer", it expanded to blanket any person working undercover, including snitches and tattle-tales. Toward the end of my time in the neighborhood, my mom became a block-captain; so we also were labeled "narcs"
Shit Kickers Steel-toed work boots, preferably with an extra layer of sole to make one taller. You could save cash by swiping old tire tread off the highway and glueing it to the existing sole of your boot.
The proper accessories to wear with your shit kickers include blue jeans, a wallet on a chain and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.
South Side Code A rigid set of unwritten rules for behavior in any given situation. The Code covered everything from dealing with the homeless to how to conduct a fight. Children learned the Code from catch-phrases such as:
"I didn't start the fight, but I'm damn well gonna finish it."
Thingie Girl-speak for any item she's not supposed to know the name of. Examples: Block thingie with the flippy thing on top = carburator; spider thingie with the wires = distributor cap; thingie that all the hoses go into = water pump
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