The “Valley”

by Trisha Peplinski Harvey

The Valley. Fer sure. (Daylife.com)

Most people, when thinking of the Valley, think of California and people who say “Like totally awesome!”  However, St. Louis has their own Valley, and yes, some of the people there might say the same phrase.

Off the beautiful Highway 40 is the Chesterfield Valley and the shopping center called Chesterfield Commons.  This shopping center and general area is known simply as the Valley by locals.  The Chesterfield Commons is the longest outdoor shopping strip in America — over a mile long, located right off Highway 40 at Boone’s Crossing.  You wouldn’t expect anything less from the people of Chesterfield.  They like to go above all others.

The Valley has lots of shopping from major chains like Target, Wal-Mart, and PetsMart to smaller specialty stores like Fleet Feet (hey, I’m a runner) and even  a vacuum store.  There are tons of restaurants from fast food like Lions Choice to more expensive like The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Bike riders in the Valley (Daylife.com)

You can also catch a movie, play softball, go ice-skating, adopt a pet or even go to a bounce place.  Even if you do not want to do any of those activities, you can ride your bike or walk the path.  It’s in the flood plain, so it is a very flat area.

Back in the Flood of 1993, the Valley was completely flooded.  There was no shopping center, but a couple of restaurants and stores and, of course, the softball field and pumpkin patch.  When they were building the shopping center, a lot of people thought it was stupid because it was just going to flood again.  After the flood, higher levees were built.

The Valley is a one-stop shop for all your family needs.  If you need help finding it, ask anyone in Chesterfield where the Valley is, and they can tell you many different ways on how to get there.

So come on down to the place of the perfect and gorgeous people of Chesterfield and shop and eat with the masses.  Once you go to the Valley, you will always want to come back.

Trisha Peplinski Harvey resides in Houston, Texas, but her hometown is like totally Chesterfield.  She always shops and eats at the Valley and has gone to the bounce house.  She even once had a summer job in the Valley.

John Goodman

by Trisha Peplinski Harvey

John Goodman (Fox News)

As stated in an earlier post, John Goodman is from St. Louis.  The world knows him from his role in Roseanne.  However, before he was Dan Conner he was just another St. Louisian.

John was born in Affton in 1952. He attended Affton High School, where he played football. With his football scholarship, he attended Southwest Missouri State University (SMS) in Springfield. That school is now called Missouri State University. He pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon but did not get initiated until after he was a star. In fact, in the ’90s, he would go back to SMS and party with his fraternity friends.  I have seen pictures of this from some of my sister’s friends’ Facebook pages, as she attended SMS in the ’90s. Anyway, he suffered a football injury and decided to become an actor, leaving Missouri in 1975.

St. Louis is proud to have an Emmy award-winning actor (Guest Star in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) in our arsenal. He is also a Golden Globe winner for his work on Roseanne. Plus in 1997 he received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, which we all know is way more important than the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Gooman is not afraid to jump the borders between movies and TV and will take on so many different roles from comedies, dramas to even children films. Americans love him as Dan Conner because he was an average working-class guy. He comes off as a real guy and not superficial, but maybe that is because he comes from a real, hardworking family from middle America.

I do not really pay attention when I am at the fabulous Lambert airport, but apparently his voice is on one of the automated messages.

Now I love movies and TV and basically anything in that category, so to end my post about John Goodman, I am going to say which is my favorite work he has done.  It is hard to choose because he has been in 72 films and countless shows, but I am a girl, so I am picking Coyote Ugly.

John Goodman & Piper Perabo in Coyote Ugly (Touchstone Pictures via IMDB.com)

In Coyote Ugly, he plays a concerned dad from New Jersey just wanting the best for his daughter.  He raised her without a mom and is very worried when he finds out where she is working.  John plays a father figure really well.  He is a father, but also, his own dad died when he was a toddler.  He is just very believable.

So here’s to you, John Goodman.  You might not live in St. Louis anymore, but St. Louis will always be proud to be your hometown.

Trisha Peplinski Harvey is living in Texas with her husband and two dogs but still calls St. Louis home.  She has never met John Goodman, but she has been on the SMS campus quite a few times.