St. Louis’ homegrown holiday, 314 Day, has increasingly become the province of civic leaders and local businesses, who urge us to celebrate our city with parties and 20 percent discounts at locally owned retailers. And while we applaud those efforts — lord knows this region could use some additional appreciation — we also have to admit they’ve become increasingly distant from the St. Louis we know.
St. Louis, after all, isn’t just about free gooey butter cake and $3.14 carousel rides. It’s about the people of St. Louis and all their vices (which, by our tally, includes smoking more weed than any other state, routinely drinking way too much in the city streets and driving like maniacs). It’s about, frankly, a certain hoosier-tinged lawlessness. It’s about the St. Louis accent and its “hurrrr” and “thurrrr” and “farrty.” It’s about being neither north nor south, east nor west, about living in a deep blue city in a deep red state, about fitting in nowhere in this godforsaken country but still insisting you count.
It’s a hard-knock life, being a St. Louisan. Here are our best suggestions for celebrating this complicated existence.
