9 Habits That Give Away Someone Who Grew Up in Missouri

A new hire mentions she grew up outside St. Louis. Before anyone learns her last name, someone asks where she went to high school.

She laughs like she’s answered it a hundred times.

That’s because she has.

These are the habits that mark someone as a Missouri kid, whether they notice them or not.

1. Answering Doubt With “Show Me”

Missourians answer a big claim with two words: Show me.

No proof, no deal.

That instinct isn’t folklore.

It’s baked into Missouri’s own state motto, and it rides on every Missouri license plate.

The nickname traces to a Missouri congressman’s 1899 speech in Philadelphia, where he told the crowd frothy talk wouldn’t convince him.

Grow up under that motto, and skepticism becomes a reflex, not an attitude.

2. Ordering Toasted Ravioli First

A Missourian’s first order at a St. Louis Italian restaurant is toasted ravioli, no menu required.

Outsiders ask what fried pasta squares are doing next to the breadsticks.

Locals don’t blink.

A St. Louis newspaper advertised toasted ravioli as early as 1943, and three separate restaurants on The Hill, the city’s Italian neighborhood, still argue over which kitchen invented it first.

Nobody’s settled it.

Few restaurants outside Missouri get the breading right.

3. Asking About Your High School

Where you went to high school is the first thing a Missourian from St. Louis wants to know about a new acquaintance.

It sounds like small talk.

It isn’t.

St. Louis Public Radio has reported the question works as shorthand for a person’s neighborhood, income, and often their religion, thanks to the region’s dense network of Catholic parish schools.

Answer with the right school. A Missourian instantly places you on the map.

Answer with a school from anywhere else, and the questions keep coming.

4. Ordering Burnt Ends by Name

Missouri’s Kansas City barbecue joints sell burnt ends by name, no explanation needed.

Pitmasters there used to just give the charred brisket trimmings away.

Arthur Bryant’s, the pit that popularized the practice, sits on Brooklyn Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, not across the state line in Kansas.

A 1972 magazine article first described the free scraps in print.

Pitmasters didn’t start charging in earnest until the competitive barbecue circuit picked burnt ends up roughly two decades later, turning them into one of Kansas City’s most iconic dishes.

Free became famous.

Elsewhere, a server might just bring out a plate of ribs instead.

5. Saying Town Names Their Way

Missourians pronounce their own map in ways that catch outsiders off guard.

Nevada, Missouri, comes out “nuh-VAY-duh.”

Versailles turns into “ver-SAYLZ,” nothing like the French palace.

The University of Missouri’s public radio station (KBIA) traced the pattern back to settlers from Kentucky and Tennessee, who carried their own hometown pronunciations west and planted them on the Missouri map.

Locals usually correct newcomers within their first sentence.

6. Picking Cardinals or Royals

Picking a side between the Cardinals and the Royals comes early for Missourians, long before anyone asks.

Missouri runs two separate Major League Baseball fan bases, one at each end of the state.

Those two teams met in the 1985 World Series, a St. Louis-Kansas City matchup fans still call the I-70 Series.

Nobody roots for both.

Even Missouri’s newer soccer clubs picked up the fight, in a rivalry match fans now call the I-70 Derby.

7. Expecting Their Concrete Upside Down

A Missourian in St. Louis expects a “concrete” handed over upside down, no spoon required to keep it in the cup.

Ted Drewes started the practice in 1959, after a teenage regular kept begging for a thicker malt.

The stand’s own history credits that customer, Steve Gamber, whom Ted Drewes Jr. finally answered by flipping the cup over.

It stayed.

The flip still happens at the counter, decades after Gamber’s first cup.

8. Splitting on Their State’s Name

Missourians can’t fully agree on how to say the name of their own state.

A 2023 poll from Saint Louis University found more than 90% say Missour-ee, while about one in ten still say Missour-uh.

The vote wasn’t close.

That remaining holdout leans older and more rural.

Voters 65 and older chose Missour-uh at more than five times the rate of voters under 30. Northwest Missouri ran highest of any region in the state.

Say it the other way around a Missourian, and someone always notices.

9. Cutting Pizza Into Squares

Cutting pizza into squares is second nature to a Missourian raised in St. Louis.

So is ordering it topped with cheese that isn’t quite mozzarella.

Imo’s Pizza opened on The Hill in 1964.

A hired cook substituted Provel, a mild blend of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone, for the mozzarella the recipe called for.

The swap stuck.

By 1985 the chain had grown to 30 locations across the region, all cutting the same way.

A triangle-cut slice just looks wrong to a Missourian.