Chesterfield, Missouri: Obfuscating High Schools and a Gay Botanist

Marquette High School is not in Marquette, Michigan, which one would naturally assume: Father Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) was the first European to visit what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, but he never made it to Missouri.

It's in Chesterfield, but not Chesterfield, Virginia, which one would naturally assume.  Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis on the St. Charles River, formed in 1988 by the merging of an unincorported area formerly occupied by the villages of Bellefontaine, Bonhomme, Hog Hollow, and Gumbo.

Leave it to Missouri to obfuscate.  The school website leaves out any mention of the city or state.  I only found out because when you search for Tucson, Arizona swim teams on Google Images, you get the Fort Zumwalt East High Swim Team in St. Peters, Missouri, which plays against Chesterfield.

I have a question about the one black wrestler on the Fort Zumwalt team going against the one black wrestler on the Marquette team.

In March 2019 a Marquette High School student posted an Instagram photo of herself in blackface.  She claimed that it was just special effects makeup, and the school responded: "The incident did not take place on school property."

Later that month, students at Parkway Central High in Chesterfield posted a video laced wih racial slurs and threats, including chants of "slavery" and suggestions that all African-Ameicans should die.  The school responded: "The students have received consequences."

Other than its obfuscating and racially suspect high schools (albeit with interesting wrestling techniques), Chesterfield is known for its gay botanist.

Faust Park (no connection to the German scientists who sold his soul to the devil) features a historic village (open March-July), a carousel, and the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, home to 2,000 butterflies of 80 species.  It's part of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, founded by Henry Shaw in 1858.   Admission is free on July 24th to celebrate his birthday.

Henry Shaw (1800-1889)  moved from Britain to St. Louis as a young man, and became so wealthy that he was able to retire at age 40 and devote the rest of his life to his interest in botany.  Aside from the Botanical Gardens, he contributed to many other Missouri institutions.  He has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, along with Maya Angelou, Scott Bakula, T, S, Eliot, Vincent Price, and Tennessee Williams.

He never married; according to his biography, "he went to parties and balls occasionally,but he seemed to avoid making acquaintances among the girls; he avoided making female friends, fearful that he might fall in love."

Sure,that's one explanation for it

Collinsville: Indian Mounds, Wrestling Singlets, and Ghosts

When I was growing up in Rock Island, we visited St. Louis quite often, and Carbondale, in the southern part of the state, once or twice, and on the way there or back we sometimes stopped  Collinsville, Illinois, to see the Cahokia Indian Mounds.

The site of an ancient city built by the Mississippian Culture between 600 and 1200 AD.   At its height it had a population of 40,000, bigger than London at the time, with 120 enormous earthen mounds used for burials, religious rites, and lookouts.

We don't know much about the Mississippians.  They left no written records.  But we know that they occupied all of the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, and traded from as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.

And that they practiced human sacrifices, sometimes decapitating their victims, sometimes burying them alive.





What's going on here?

In those days many people had trouble believing that "backwards" Native Americans built such an advanced civilization, so there was a lot of speculation about who actually lived in Cahokia:  ancient Egyptians? Vikings?  Space aliens?  Refugees from Atlantis?

The mounds were billed as spooky "Mounds of Mystery" rather than as an archaeological site.

And there were other scary things in Collinsville:

1. The Miner's Institute, a public hall for coal miners, with a library and a theater. For 100 years, plays, concerts, conventions, and high school graduations were held there.  It finally closed in 2008.

Over the door, there is a sculpture of two miners holding a medallion.  According to urban legend, they were twin brothers, competing over a girl or over ownership of the institute. One killed the other in a fit of rage, and then committed suicide in remorse.

Their ghosts haunt the theater to this day, slamming doors, dropping things, turning the lights on and off, and intervening when couples get too intimate by tapping their shoulders or roughly shoving them apart.

It's all very heteronormative. I prefer to think of them competing over a guy, and intervening when hetero couples get too intimate because they don't care for that boy-girl stuff.

2. The Gates to Hell, old railroad underpasses off Lebanon Road.  If you go through all seven of them in order, the gates will open.  Of course, the residents of Hell don't want you there, so they will send demonic beings to stand in your way and devil dogs to chase you.

Collinsville is also known for the world's largest bottle of ketchup, for being the horseradish capital of the world, and for its annual Italian Festival, with bocci ball, grape stomping contests, and pasta eating contests.

I found some beefcake at Collinsville High, where the wrestling singlets are impressive.

Not as impressive as the Mississippian sculpture, but impressive.

So are the track uniforms.

  Nearby towns have athletes who are similarly gifted.  Those mounds must have mystical powers after all.

Deciphering the Mysterious Water Polo Team Photo

This photo of buffed guys holding soccer balls over their crotches is labeled "First Year CBC JV water polo team finishes third in state tournament."

I have no idea what any of those words mean, but the sleuthing will be fun.

1 JV is easy.  It means "junior varsity," a team representing a high school or college at a level below "varsity" (the main team).  Here's a varsity swimmer with a Halloween pumpkin on his trunks.

2.   What is CBC?  Clicking on the link doesn't help: it's from a newspaper website called STLToday, with all of the text blocked out until you subscribe.  None of the menu items tells you what or where STL is.

3. I know the article was published by Katie Siebuhr in May 2012.  Googling her leads mostly to some articles by "Aaron Siebuhr,"  who lives in Toowomba, Queensland, Australia, where you can join the Coogee Life Saving Club.

4.  Finally I find another Katie Siebuhr article:  "Gateway FC Vest took on challengers across the Midwest," from the same STLToday, October 2012.  No idea what any of those words mean. Maybe Gateway is a high school?

There's a Gateway High School in Osceola, Florida, with a wrestling team, the KowBoys.  But this is in the Midwest.

5. Ok, another article:  "Eagles' Hruby good as gold this summer," in July 2010.  "American National's Brian Hruby is a St. Louis Cardinals kind of pitcher." 

Does he play for the Eagles, the American National, or the St. Louis Cardinals?

All three, evidently. The American National Eagles is a baseball program that began in 1975.  The have teams in the 15U-18U levels, and play for the SLABA (St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association).

15U means "15 and under," and 18U, "18 and under."  So what if you're 14 years old -- don't you qualify for both groups?

American National Eagle J'lil Cage (great name!) played basketball, baseball, and football at Orchard Farm High School in St. Charles, MO.

St. Charles is a northeastern suburb of St. Louis, about 30 miles away.  It has its own Gay Pride Festival.

At least now I know that STL is St. Louis.  Clever to make it so hard to figure out, STLToday!

6. CBC in Saint Louis = Christian Brothers College High School, a "Lasallian Catholic college preparatory school for young men," founded in 1850, tuition $14,700 per year.  Notable alumni include King Baggot (silent film star with a weird name) and a lot of professional soccer players.

It's not at all confusing to have both "college" and "high school" in your name.

7.  There are 16 "Christian Brothers Colleges," but only two in the U.S.  The other one, in Memphis, is an actual college (post-secondary education).

Wasn't that fun?

Fall 2008: The Darkroom of the Gay Bar in St. Louis

St. Louis, Fall 2008

Most gay bars in Europe have darkrooms, cut off from the main bar by a black curtain.  It's completely dark inside, not even a safety light, although some guys walk around flashing the lights on their cell phones.  You feel around until you find something you like.

In the U.S., there are no darkrooms.  State and local laws strictly forbid public sexual encounters.  Even in bathhouses, private clubs with membership fees, you're not allowed to do things in public areas.  

I've seen the equivalent of a darkroom only once in the U.S.

In the fall of 2008, in St. Louis for a conference, I went to the Spike (I don't remember its real name) on Manchester Street, in the gay neighborhood.

Bare brick walls, a small dance floor, a lot of guys in jeans hanging around staring into space, their beer bottles protruding like phalluses.

I noticed a lot of beer bottles by a door in the back, as if people were leaving them on the way to the bathroom, but it wasn't a bathroom.

They would set down their beer bottle, go through, and return a few minutes later.

After awhile, I investigated.

It was a narrow enclosed patio, partially open to the sky, lit only by the stars and a string of multicolored Christmas tree lights.

No heat except for a red-glowing space heater.

A bulletin board, some railings, no place to sit.

There was a row of men standing with their backs against the wall in single file, waiting.

The rest of the post is too explicit for Boomer Beefcake and Bonding.  You can read it on Tales of West Hollywood.