Giving Thanks

I had a customer the other night who was considering a permanent move to STL. I said I loved it here and he asked why. Over the course of the evening, I gave him my quick list of reasons. In the spirit of the holidays, I thought perhaps I'd recount what I am thankful for in this city. After all, it's why I stayed.

I'm thankful for:

- free museums, and museums worth going to
- the quality of the 2 museum-type places I have to pay for-- the City Museum and the Botanical Gardens.
- the fact that this city is one of the least pretentious places I have ever been. I casually refer to STL as a "beer and shorts" kind of town. See and be seen, St. louis, thankfully, is not.
- I am rarely stuck in traffic and can almost always find a parking place (except in the West End, which is one of the reasons why I rarely go there. It makes me angry.)
- everyone here loves baseball and it's not a fair-weather love, but a love deep and pure
- there are many major US cities within a four hour drive
- cost of living is cheap
- people do cool stuff (as in art, and music, and we have great events...)
- the diversity-- I love that while in line at the bank or at the grocery store I might hear six different languages and no one bats an eye.
- St Louisans tip well. Period.
- There're great parks.
- There's a strange history that stops every twenty or thirty years and then we re-invent ourselves in some way, while always remaining true to our roots. Think Gaslight Square. I'm still amazed that happened here.
- We appreciate old buildings, architecture, and things that are truly uniqie and beautiful.
- It will often be in the seventies way past when it should be. Case in point, the last week.
- You can buy your Christmas tree while eating Ted Drewes. (I did that yesterday.)
- There are people willing to live here and make things happen. Good things.

I'm sure the list could go on, but as a short list, rambled off in a couple of minutes, I am not sure what else people need. Coasts be damned. Who needs an ocean when you live in the heart of it all?