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[YOU WANT SERIOUS? WE’LL GET SERIOUS... JUST NOT QUITE YET ]

EIGHT QUESTIONS for Two Forest Park Fishermen

Danny Vaninger and Kevin Burke fish in Forest Park. | BENJAMIN SIMON

On a Monday morning at 10 a.m. two people are fishing at efferson a e next to teinberg ating in in orest ar . heir names are enny Vaninger who once played for the . . men s national soccer team and evin ur e. he gentlemen wanted to tal but didn t want their picture in the paper. his interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are you doing out here?

DV: rout fishing. Catch and release. Rainbow trout. hat s about it. Hanging out. Catching a couple fish. hrow them back in.

How does it work?

KB: hey stocked about [3,6 ] fish in here about a month ago. t s catch and release. ou have to use artificial bait. ou can t use live bait. And then you have to return them. ... At other parks, they let you use power baits, it’s called, which is a dough bait. And you can keep them with the other parks, like uson and Carondelet.

Is it fun if you don’t keep them?

DV: It’s fun because we just catch them, hanging out. We’ve been doing this for 60 years.

Coming out to here specifically?

DV: Everywhere. We’ve been buddies since we were 10. Now we’re 70.

Have you caught any today?

DV: Yeah, we’ve caught, what? Six or seven? KB: Yeah.

Is that a good day?

DV: Yeah. KB: It’s mostly just — DV: — Just something to do.

Where are the best places to fish in the city?

DV: Well, we come here for trout. And then we sometimes go to Willmore and Carondelet where they put catfish in the summer. KB: Oh! There we go.

You caught one?

DV: He just caught one, yeah. [Fish slips away.] Well. Almost caught one. [Both break out laughing.] —Benjamin Simon

[QUOTE OF THE WEEK] “I’ll be there this spring!”

—Judy Swank Polys on the article “St. Louis Family to Open Nursery in Bayer’s”

SO ST. LOUIS Pop O

An anonymous story about something that could only happen in the Gateway City

IMy friend and I were only 19 years old and, having grown up in west county, had never been to the east side. But we’d heard enough about it from our fathers and older brothers to know that on the morning of New Year’s Day — when we were wide awake and wired in a room full of passed-out friends — the only thing to do was head for the Mississippi River, on the other side of which we thought we d find a never-ending bacchanal.

“Do you think it’ll even be open?” my friend asked as he piloted his Jeep down 64, his eyes narrowed and gaze straight ahead in an inebriated pantomime of focused, diligent driving.

“Dude,” I said. “It’s Pop’s. They never close.”

In my teenage mind, I knew Pop’s only as a place that never closed and where wild things occurred, presumably around the clock. I knew its logo featured a guitar. The half-baked assumption in my mind was that bands performed live 24/7 on the Pop’s stage to a crowd ever-drinking itself into a frenzy.

In our inebriated state, in the pre-smart phone era, I have no idea how we found the place. But we did.

Shame on my friend for driving drunk and even more shame on me for letting him.

But mad props to the Pop’s bouncer working the sunrise shift on January 1, 2007. He had a handlebar mustache and shaved head, an orange shirt, jeans and work boots. He looked like he ought to be reporting to a construction site rather than eyeing my friend’s and my fake IDs.

He handed the IDs back to us and did not move aside to let us in the front door.

“Go home and get some sleep,” he said.

And we did.

Send your So St. Louis story to jsrogen@euclidmediagroup.com.

ESCAPE HATCH

We ask three St. Louisans what they re reading watching or listening to. n the hot seat this wee three members of the M oung riends group.

Craig Dull

Watching: Only Murders in the uilding on Hulu “It’s dorky comedy that I think is funny. I like the murder mystery part, but I’m mostly into the comedy.”

Ashley Dull

Listening to: Taylor Swift’s Midnights “It’s fun. It makes me feel like I’m 22 again. ‘Antihero’ is my favorite song so far.”

Lauren Stuart

Watching: ellowstone on Paramount “I love it because it’s very different from my lifestyle and how I grew up. It’s kind of about a simpler way of life that I somewhat envy and wish I could have.”