I personally never liked the lyrics for Pleasant Valley Sunday. It just sounded like Carole King sneering at regular suburban folk. Maybe all their houses started out looking the same, because it beat living in a crappy tenement. Over time, those ticky-tack house get modified, painted, new landscaping, etc. When the song was released, HOAs had not yet gotten completely out of control.
When I was a kid, smelling charcoal meant that there was a great feast of food on the way.