Kansas City News Blog

By JEN CHEN

The first time I realized that KC is a big small town was when I tried to crash a party in Prairie Village. As I documented in this Night Ranger column, I was infiltrating the party when I realized that (a) I knew the host; and (b) I had already been invited. What’s weird is that I knew only a few people who lived in PV at the time, so I’m still amazed that of all the houses in the area, I ended up at the one where I knew the owner.

Since then, I’ve collected stories about the random ways in which Kansas Citians are connected. I’ve wanted to write this “Big Small Town” story for a while, but I’ve had trouble approaching such a nebulous subject. I didn’t want the story to consist solely of anecdotes about how someone knows so-and-so, who’s friends with the brother of such-and-such. So I tried to figure out why this happens. I came up with a theory on how we interact; I thought that most Kansas Citians (especially those who grew up here) could be classified in four ways:

1. The regressors: Those who fall back into their high-school cliques.
2. The overcompensators: Those who were nerdy in high school, but are now cool. And they still have to prove to everyone (especially their high school peers) that they’re cool.
3. The fraternistas: Those who went to KU, MU or K-State (or any other Big 12 school) and hang out exclusively with their college friends.
4. The rejectors: Those who don’t really care about high school or college and now do their own thing.

The only problem turned out to be that these are narrow definitions of how many of us interact. So, I changed tactics and decide to talk to some KC natives. I wanted to interview people who are doing interesting things to get their take on how they see the city – and how the big-small-town phenomenon affects their lives.

Along the way, I heard some interesting stories that confirmed another theory I have: The KC connection follows you wherever you go. For example, Rachel Cahill told me that when she lived in New York City, she noticed a familiar face around her neighborhood. He turned out to be a grade school friend who had moved just a couple of blocks away from her. And when she came back to KC to teach, the guy’s mom was a substitute at her school. John Teasdale had a story about how the rector at his dorm at Notre Dame was the son of a guy who used to work for John’s dad.

Then there’s this story from Price Leatherbarrow, the stylist who used to frequent the city’s under-18 clubs. He said that when he was 15, he met a guy at Starz on Broadway and they dated for a summer. Eighteen years later, Price was about to move back to Kansas City from Nebraska when a friend came over with an adult film.

“You gotta see this. All these guys have mullets -- it’s really camp,” the friend said.

In the first scene, Price thought he recognized the voice and face of one of the actors. It turned out to be the guy from Starz. Then, back in Kansas City, Price ran into him at a drag show at Sidekicks.

“I said, ‘I think I saw you in a movie.’ And he said, ‘which one?’” Price said.

After writing this story, I’m toying with the idea of organizing a Big Small Town Happy Hour. Its theme: “Come meet all the people you didn’t know you already knew.”