Do y'all remember Flo-Jo, Florence Griffith-Joyner, the outstanding female sprinter who won numerous gold medals in the Olympics and various track and field competitions in the 1980s?
She was the one who wore the fashion-forward, provocative track clothes and had the long, brightly painted fingernails. To my eye, she was every bit as sexy looking as she was a stellar athlete.
When she married 1984 triple-jump gold medallist Al Joyner, Flo-Jo became the sister-in-law of Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a superb athlete in her own right and pretty good-looking herself. Jackie was married to Flo-Jo's UCLA track coach, Bob Kersee. Point is, Flo-Jo and Jackie were attractive world-class athletes who were close friends and shared a passion for track and field competition, so they frequently trained together.
Jackie was from rough, crime-ridden East St. Louis and never forgot where she came from, so she would often spend time there in various community leadership roles trying to improve her hometown. I lived across the bridge in St. Louis in the early- and mid-90s and saw Jackie interviewed on the local news, so I knew she was in the area. I was also aware that Flo-Jo was trying to make a comeback for the '96 Olympics in Atlanta.
Please hang in there, as this story is actually going somewhere!
East St. Louis, Sauget and other nearby little towns were bleak, poverty-ridden places with many abandoned buildings, rife with drug and gun dealing, and a few large chemical plants along the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. The main tax revenue was from the many sexually oriented businesses situated there, so police were very lax about enforcing the already loose laws that governed them.
I had driven over there one afternoon to find a strip joint recommended by a business associate. I got all turned around and completely lost--quite unnerving, especially since I passed a dude walking down a back street carrying an assault rifle. Have a nice, day, mister.
I finally wound around and ended up at the track behind a school, where I saw a couple people in the distance on the far side practicing starts out of blocks and hopping a few hurdles. Perhaps these folks could give me directions; at this point I was much more interested in getting back to the relative safety of St. Louis than finding the titty bar.