What can you tell me about Missouri?

Op please tell me about your cognitive dysfunction. No information from 1985, please!

Lame for r1.

Op, r2

You can’t fix stupid

The scenery is gorgeous; the people and their politics, not so much.

Great for camping, caving, and buying fireworks and dried meats.

The Locals call is misery.

Full of old, angry white people totally consumed with restarting the Civil War and ending with their side winning, this time.

Anti-labor, anti-union, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-immigration. Pro-evangelicals, Pro-Republican and ravenously Pro-Trump.

The states showpiece is Branson, the "family" entertainment cspital of the world, where D Listrrs go to die.

R6 in the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City? Pffffft

Rush Limbaugh was born there. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a true shithole of a town (22% poverty rate).

R8 you don’t know your fuckin ass from the big hole in your head.

The river runs deep. My steamboat runs slow.

R5 is correct, they do call it misery. The state now has recreational weed so everyone will start to calm down >> see Oklahoma as an example

R7: STL and KSC, two fourth tier cities grasping desperately for third tier city status.

Ok, shit-4-brains r12

Columbia, the city where the University of Missouri is located, is a liberal oasis. Everyone is laid back there. I was graduated forty years ago, and I returned to Columbia after I earned my master’s degree elsewhere.

Ok, so a mixed bag. Tell me more about Branson. Any gay clubs in the state?

Where does the action go down?

It's better than some neighboring states as it does have at least two C-list cities with St Louis and Kansas City. Kansas City is typical boring sprawl but St Louis does actually have some neighborhoods with nice architecture and walkable urban framework.

Horrible puppy mills, they just let it go on, they throw deformed puppies in the trash alive.

Do you tell people you went to school at Columbia? ;)

Rather unfriendly.

Beautiful place, easy goin people alot of gays.

Places like MIssouri are not referred to as FlyOverStan for nothing. Continue flying over it and forget it exists.

R21 Ok thank you for adding absolutely nothing

I have never been, but I find Missouri kind of fascinating. St. Louis was at one time a grand city. The Ozarks in particular give me the creeps—the scenery looks stunning but also very ominous, for reasons I can't entirely explain.

Palpable tension when my interracial family walked into restaurants wearing masks ( at the height of Covid). Scary…

I haven't been there in a while, but had good Friends who were from there. It's beautiful there, but evey time I went, it seemed like the Civil just loomed there. It was fascinating and a little unsettling. They lived in Southern Missouri in a place called Poplar Bluff, and had a farm after they retired. It was kind of like going back in time. Their farm was an old farmhouse that they inherited, and it wasn't hard to imagine the Soldiers and Bushwhackers, and Slaves ( not trying to be offensive). It is very pretty there and the pine forests smell so good. That's my experience there, OP.

Here is a modern take from 1944

It's the Show-me State.

Missouri is still the center of the puppy mill industry.

It sucks

Where does a closeted gay get laid out there? Grindr? Adult bookstore?

We never talk about gay life in these places or how to get laid in these places. There must be a “scene” or something. Do the closeted men go without?

The porn shop on the edge of town, off the bypass from the interstate.

We aren't talking about North Dakota here r30, there are 6 million people in Missouri and gay bars to be found in the cities of St Louis and Kansas City. I am sure they have popular Grindr scenes which is how most gay men meet up with other gay men these days.

Missouri was once known as "the bellwether state", meaning that it voted for the winner in all but one of the Presidential elections from 1904 to 2004, with one exception in 1956. It was also thought to somewhat mirror the country itself, in that it had two blue coastal cities, Kansas City to the west, and St Louis to the east, with the remainder rural and extremely red.

There used to be something of a rivalry between its two large cities, KC and StL. For many years, StL had a larger population and was thought to be more progressive, more cultural, and thriving, with Kansas City having high crime and a lot of urban decay. Since the turn of the century, however, that has changed radically. Even though both cities have lost population, crime in St Louis has skyrocketed, most of its major businesses such as Ralston Purina, Mc Donnell Douglas, Southwestern Bell, and of course, the sale of Anheuser Busch to Belgian InBev have taken a hard toll. No NFL football team since around 2000 or so. While the city popped for a new baseball stadium in the downtown, its urban core is rotting and dangerous. Its transport system, "Metrolink" is terrifying, poorly managed, and links crime ridden areas to suburban areas. Most of its malls are shuttered.

Kansas City, meanwhile, has flourished over the past 20 years or so, and in a good way. Its NFL team, the Chiefs, have now won 2 Super Bowls, courtesy of its beloved star Patrick Mahomes. The sports complex is located outside of the city limits, with Arrowhead football and Royals baseball stadiums occupying the same space. Both are insanely popular and well attended. In the past several years, they have added the Sprint Center, a huge sports/concert center with a convenient location, as well as the drop dead gorgeous Kaufmann Center for the Arts. Its beautiful Union Station and its outdoor area can accommodate large crowds and recently hosted the NFL draft. The Plaza is not what it once was, but is still beautiful and holding its own. They have a snappy little light rail that conveniently whisks visitors around.

KC is definitely on the come up, while StL is stagnant, crime ridden and politically corrupt, with very little to attract growth. It does have Washington University, considered "the Harvard of the Midwest" and a network of reasonably good hospitals. The Catholic Church, to no one's real surprise, has closed most of its schools, and is now shuttering 30 or 40 churches, many of them very beautiful but in blighted areas. Oddly enough, both cities still have solid and active gay communities.

A Democrat now has no chance of being elected senator of governor.

R33 way to bring the goods.

R34 it’s all about the propaganda. Why someone can’t figure out how to tackle that or make gains against that problem is mystery.

There is a roadmap for that. For countering that.

When I went to Mizzou, one thing I learned about the kids from the extreme rural areas who wear cowboy hats and denim overalls, they are all well-hung. Going to the open showers in the morning was a joyful experience. Farm boys are up early and they spend a lot of time soaping up. Maybe the water was so much better than at home.

r37 went to mizzou in 1955

R37, what dorm were you in?

I was in Laws in the '90s, and there were no open showers at that time. Sadly.

The pool had them, though, so I did a lot of swim workouts.

r37 I'm sure it no longer exists.

Missouri is a beautiful state OP. Like most states it ain't so great to be gay in rural areas. I live in Kansas City and I love it here. It's a slower more relaxed pace. I spoke with a guy the other day and he said "Where is your office, it can't be DC, you sound happy.."

A state of shithole breeders and murderer who kill them.

Was r42 solved? Sounds extremely sketchy.

I can tell you that I’ve never been there.

$19.000 a month in support payments?

It's a shithole, was a shithole, and will always be a shithole.

[quote] "The Locals call is misery."

This is what I've always heard, R5. I would never choose to live there.

Jon Hamm supporting Kunce for Hawley's seat next year.

Did you know Josh Hawley's dad is Warren Jeffs?

Where do you live r47?

Why do they have different last names?

Because polygamists hide paternity from the government.

He’s has major Botox/lip gloss/wax look that a lot of these “straight” guys are getting now. It’s so awful looking. Either knock it off or just go full on drag queen already.

Trey Gowdy is another one.

They look so awful.

What kind of hairstyle is that anyway? I never know how to take this guy. He seems so contrived. Even more so that the other deplorable luminaries. He is not doing this right. He comes across as so cold and fake. Like DeSantis. They lack the fire of a Cruz or the folksiness of a Huckabee.

They don’t have “it”. Just a cheap imitation.

R53 your examples are more exaggerated and make better entertainment on TV

They’re equally sad and destructive

Lacking humanity?

Anyway, Father Jeffs isn't exactly a ball of charisma, lil' Josh is just a chip off the ol' block.

I don't think disagree that KC has been doing better than St Louis recently r33, but honestly in the limited time I spent in both Kansas City was generic sprawl with strip malls and highways and almost nowhere where you could walk around places and feel like you are in a real city. At least St Louis seemed like a real place. Not that I would want to live in either.

I lived in Kansas City for 30 years and moved to the northeast in 1999. It's more red now than it was then, but like every major city, there is culture and counter-culture. I don't miss much, but I always enjoyed visiting the Nelson.

Is Missouri more midwestern or southern? Are southern accents prevalent?

It's considered part of the Midwest so mostly Midwestern accents but more southern-sounding in the southern part of Missouri.

Missourians tried to force Kansans to allow slavery. ‘Nough said.

It’s adjacent to the state where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

They had an Olympics. in 1904.

World’s Fair 1904 in STL

^^I was there

Wasn’t ‘Winters Bone” with Jennifer Lawrence set in Ozarks region of Missouri? I have extended family in that region. All meth heads with horrible teeth and reliable MAGA voters

R3 used to be tons of gay bars in mid town and around westport. But everything is boring now

Driving thro it was terrifying. Fire and brimstone billboards and church signs. More churches than South Carolina. People staring. I told a gas station cashier that I thought St Louis was pretty and he looked me in the eye and said, "too many damn n-ggers." The church yards had popsicle stick crosses to represent abortions. Amid all this church fuckery were hundreds of billboards advertising hardcore strip clubs and jack shacks in Iowa. This was in 2010. I imagine it's even more antigay now

I lived in Sedalia and Springfield ,about 6 months in each. Im as gay as an Ungaro spring frock,and I never caught any hostility at all. In fact,I worked at a convenience store in Sedalia on the 3rd shift and I got hit on all the time ! one of my absolute favorite memories of that time was a thick blonde farm boy that used to come into the store about 4 am on the way to work. Seeing his skin tight tees and worn jeans gripping his thick muscled body was a treat every day. He always looked sleepy and had bed head,wich I found adorable. We were friendly but not overly so UNTIL one morning he came in and was sporting an obvious hard on. I was beside myself trying not to stare voraciously ! He walks up to the counter.still rock hard, and asks me "You like what you see?' What could I do but toss the dice ? I said "Oh hell yes! '.Long story short,I put a sign on the door (though nobody came in at that hour) and took him into the back room where I pried out that fat uncut dick and gobbled it like a starving bitch ! He kept saying "damn,you suck a mean dick" .I couldnt answer as my mouth was full.

He left VERY satisfied,and we repeated that scenario a few times. One other fave memory was the 20 year old who used to ask me to let him play the video games though they were supposed to close at 11. He was tall and thin,and was very cute in a corn fed way. One night I let him stay really late,and we started chatting and before you know it I was bent over the game as he rabbit fucked me to death ! good times ! Im sorry they are red now,but I found the people back in the mid 90s to be very nice and very welcoming to a screaming queen from out of town. I was invited to cook outs and parties and gatherings from the minute I got there.

The only thing I know about it is that they had the horrific Joplin tornado.

There was a hot Missouri country boy, turkey hunting and farm antics who had a great OF and really knew how to provide the gays with what they wanted to see. But he committed suicide.

Kansas City. Kansas City, here I come...

r67, what's a jack shack??

R56 have you ever heard of downtown ?

St. Louis has an oppressive sense of decay like an aging Southern Belle sinking into genteel poverty. I was there in the 90s and they were desperately trying to revitalize the waterfront. The people were weirdly insular and incurious about anything outside Missouri. One local said no one leaves and everyone knows everyone else. Granted, things may have changed.

In the Show-Me-State, they show you their ignorance.

R6 Basically Missouri in a nutshell. As well as most of the Midwest and south.

The state is also like a mini country in itself. Parts are like something out of Deliverance; obvious inbreeding, backwoods unhinged never been out of their backyard hillbilly type of areas, then you have the ghetto type areas, then the inbetween types of areas and when taking a cross country trip that requires going through it, it feels like literal forever. We call it the Missouri effect. There's just something about it that literally seems to take ages to even get through the entirety of that hellhole. Nothing good about it except the St. Louis Arch .

R67 Yes. Every other sign is a JESUS SAVES, REPENT! YOURE GOING TO HELL! billboards yet in between are numerous Crosses and porn store signs. Like in a pattern. Hicks and Hellfire Freaks.

Its the birthplace of Hallmark Cards. The most boring creative place you could visit. It's a Karen's paradise. They have a maga complex of hundreds of employees producing greetings cards like they were Pepsi-co. They even have a visitor center, oh joy. They flew me out there for an interview and basically said they have to import all their creative staff because there just isn't enough talent in that sate. Because they are so huge, it's like a company town. Only beige.

It takes them 2 years to get a card approved from concept to print. 2YEARS! That's how long it takes to design a new car.

I spent three weeks working in St. Louis. The only thing I remember is that the "mighty Mississippi" was a narrow stream that I could piss across. Oh, and the Arch. I still wonder if anyone's flown through (rather than over) it.

Can you go up the arch or is it just for show?

I'll say that you never were in St. Louis judging solely by your characterization of the Mississippi River as a "narrow stream" along with your claim that you could "piss across it".

That's an absurdly false pair of statements that inject lying drama into the discussion here and which just don't cut it!

R81 every single DL thread is full of that shit.

The man can go up into the Arch, same as the man goes up into the man. ;)

It was my freshman year in 1978 in Defoe Hall, R38

I think this place was among the must-sees in recent Hemisphere's 3 Perfect Days: Missouri

This is good info so far. I’d like to hear from people who hook up in these kinds of states. How do you get laid.

Is there a lot of action at the advertised bookstores?

Is it me, or do they seem to have a lot of homeschoolers there?

It looks pretty

[quote] I'll say that you never were in St. Louis judging solely by your characterization of the Mississippi River

R81 And I'll say you're an erroneous, assumptive twat. July 2001, spent three weeks working in St. Louis for an international producer of telecommunications software. Also the first time I was at Independence Day celebrations in 30 years. My description of the "mighty Miss" is my impression/memory.

The only other thing I remember about St. Louis was the Walk of Fame, like the stars on Hollywood Blvd.

[quote]Where does a closeted gay get laid out there? Grindr? Adult bookstore?

Church camp.

I grew up in Iowa in the 1970's, and my memory of Missouri was the drastic shift in road conditions going from IA into MO. Say what you will about Iowa, they keep their roads in good condition. Missouri not so much.

That abandoned town gives me the creepers. Looks like it would make the hair on your neck stand up driving through there. Especially if you didn’t know that was coming.

Mizzourah

And it’s Ne-vada not Ne-vahda. And it’s Ore-gin not Ore-gone.

Californy

I’ve always wanted to see St. Louis. What’s it like?

[quote] updated references please, not information from 1985

Not a whole lot has changed since **1895**.

Lots of gay porn stars are from Missouri.

Didn't the folks speed around lakes in the Ozarks. I find it to be typical Missouri.

R31 has it pretty right. I lived in STL for about 15 years in the 2000’s. It is STL+KC+Columbia vs the rest of the state. If both STL & KC didn’t have big chunks of their metro areas in adjoining states, MO’s politics would likely be a whole lot different - I got Claire McCaskill as my senator for 12 years after all!

STL is not great, but nowhere near as bad as the reputation it has. It’s 2.6 million people, so it supports plenty of urban life, including a robust gay scene. (Plus plenty of sleaze across the river in IL if that’s your scene.) I lived downtown and never once felt unsafe. Baseball scene and energy is one of the best in the US.

^Sorry meant R33 has it pretty right!

Those are my favorite boat people!

The Cardinals suck!

Why didn’t Missouri get a big Broadway show like Oklahoma and New York?

Or Napa Valley? Or Maine? Or Chicago? Or Berlin? Or Paris?

Maine?

What Broadway show is about Napa?

Carousel. 🤨

Somethin’ about some fella who was kinda happy, or more happy? Whadda ya call that one?

They voted to defund public libraries because librarians were speaking out against book bans

That should tell you everything

OP, honey, this is datalounge. Lucy and Ethel are still vibrant pop culture icons; Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia are still vigorously alive in our 70 year old brains that look 30. 1986 is recent times.

Maine is into the woods?

"I’ve always wanted to see St. Louis."

There are many nice neighborhoods in St. Louis: Soulard, Lafayette Square, Compton Heights, The Hill, Central West End, The Hill, St. Louis Hills, Holly Hills, etc.

Unfortunately, these nice neighborhoods constitute only about 1/3 of the city. The other two thirds of the city have been struggling with crime and poverty for years, and have been hemorrhaging population for decades, and continue to do so at an extremely alarming clip. Travel west on Page Boulevard from Union Avenue to the city limits and there is nothing but block after block of abandoned and boarded up buildings that will either collapse on their own from neglect or be bulldozed and the ground left fallow.

There were just over 300K people in the city of St. Louis at the 2020 census. This is down from 850K in 1950. Estimates are the population is now down to about 285K, a loss of 15K in just 3 years, with no signs of this downward trend easing up.

In years past, blacks had a slight majority of the population, 55% to about 45% white. That has been reversed to about 55% white to 45% black in 2020, as blacks flee the bombed out, drug infested, crime ridden neighborhoods of North St. Louis city for the South Side and northern St. Louis County.

There is a street named Delmar Boulevard. It has been nick named "the Delmar Divide." If you were born north of Delmar, on average, you will be poorer, sicklier, and less educated and probably black. Your chances at life are markedly better if you are born and raised south of Delmar.

As I said @R6, Missouri in general, and metro St. Louis in particular, is full of angry white people still fighting the Civil War. They have a vested interest in seeing the city of St. Louis fail, because to them it means they and their racism were right all along and the actual outcome of the Civil War was an aberration.

I’m in STL right now. At Kaldi’s Coffee.

OP, have you learned enough to put this thread out to pasture or should it continue? Perhaps we can have the Missouri board of tourism send you some material and swag?