[RMadd]

well...

I technically live in a suburb of St. Louis, a city of about 12,000 that's southwest of the City of St. Louis, maybe 5 miles distant.
My suburb, Crestwood, is largely residential and somewhat commercial (a mall and a whole bunch of stores along one of the main roads... really, the rest is mostly homes, schools, and parks).
As far as St. Louis itself is concerned, people love baseball (specifically, the Cardinals) more than just about anything else. I guess people get excited when our hockey (Blues) or football (Rams) or any college team does well (Mizzou, SLU, or Illinois), but the Cardinals are a year-round passion.
The metropolitan area isn't too diverse (the 'burbs are largely middle class and populated by white folks), but the City of St. Louis itself has a decent-sized African-American population. Also, since the '90s, there's been a tremendous influx of Bosnian immigrants to St. Louis. But, unfortunately, the city is still somewhat segregated, insofar as that minority groups tend to be not quite so well off in terms of socioeconomic status and, therefore, tend to live nearer to each other.

I spend roughly 9 or 10 months a year attending school in Springfield, Missouri. It's a city of about 180,000 in the southwestern corner of the state, in a region known as the Ozarks (old old old mountains that, like the Appalachians, got flattened by time & weather, etc.).
Just last year we got a pro sports team, Minor League AA Cardinals (an affiliate w/ the St. Louis Cardinals). For baseball and football, people tend to split loyalties between St. Louis (Cardinals & Rams) and Kansas City (Royals & Chiefs), although the preference seems towards the Cardinals and Chiefs, both of which have been in their respective sport longer.
As far as the make-up of the population, the city (and region, really) is frightfully white. Something like 95-98%!
It's also a college town of sorts, insofar as that there's one major state university (which I attend) and about 3 or 4 private schools. So, even though there's likely around 30,000 college students around, it's really not much of a small college town. The diversity (or lack thereof) is reflected in the student populations. You'd think that, in a state in which KC & St. Louis have fairly sizable minority populations, there might be a decent number of minorities at a state school. But that, unfortunately, is not the case.
Driving in Springfield is hell. It's one massive grid system with a crapload of stoplights. Lots of old people and rednecks drive here, and really aren't accustomed to normal "rules" that people follow in St. Louis and such.
A few claims to fame I've heard about Springfield:
+ The most restaurants per capita in the U.S. Seriously, if you drive around for 15 minutes, you'll have at least 20 or 30 places to choose from.
+ The greatest number of Chinese restaurants per capita outside of China. Sure, the food isn't the same, but there are alot. Along those lines, Cashew Chicken is a Springfield (MO) original.
+ there was another, but i forgot it!
Brad Pitt also grew up here.