Posted on 12/27/2008 5:53:20 AM PST by VU4G10
I guess I'm just sensitive because the suburbs give me the willies. They always have, too.
The precursor to the lab is the extra trailor or shed thrown up behind the residence. You know, back where all the dogs are.
They like those wooded, no-zoning lots where they pay by land-contract to the rich guy who doesn’t care the land is being used as junkyards and meth labs.
Oh. Well, our house has never been broken into except for a squirrel coming through the kitchen window. He was after bread. In my memory, only two houses have been broken into in over 35 years. There was a rash when I was a kid, but the perpetrator was a single individual. The worst recently was a neighbor who was a cop was sitting in his squad car in the business part of town Halloween night and he was shot at point blank range. That guys was given up pretty quickly and caught in Kansas City. That hadn’t happened here in a long time.
When we sold our little cabin in downtown Atlanta and started looking, we saw some subdivisions that repelled us like garlic does a vampire. They tended to be over in East Cobb, built in the 1980s, for immigrants to the Atlanta area. Very small lots, houses built on one pattern, all looked the same. Kinda creepy.
We went with an older suburb closer in. Houses are different architecturally, set at different distances from the street, larger lots, etc.
Oh, no, they were there. Just down by Saujay. ESL is a lot bigger than you might think.
I'm not attacking vets or the circumstances that led them to move into tract housing.
Sorry your tastes are so refined you cannot appreciate the historic triumph of an earlier time.
It isn't about "taste" or "refinement". I don't think anyone has ever accused me of having either. ;)
My beef with tract housing - all forms of 'cookie cutter' housing, actually - is the icky conformity and lack of individual expression.
This extends to attempts to limit individual expression.
For example: A nutty HOA that prohibits a nativity scene on a private lawn or won't "allow" a homeowner to paint his house hot pink.
As for the historic triumph of applying the economics of scale to housing, um... not sure what to say. They built a ton of houses cheaply.
I can confirm that the folllowing stuff from Wikipedia is acurate, because I may discuss this aspect of the book on my blog and peeked at a few appropriate pages to make sure:
Seeking to break out of their suburban rut, April convinces Frank they should move to Paris, where she will work and support him while he realizes his vague ambition to be something other than an office worker. Unfortunately, Frank (from whose point of view most of the novel is told) is a weak reed, doing the minimum to get by at work without developing any alternative self, in contrast with April's taking concrete steps to accomplish their move. When April conceives their third child, their plan to leave America crumbles, not least because Frank is flattered by praise from his supervisors at work and beginning to identify with his mundane job. April realizes that she doesn't know herself any more and that she doesn't love Frank; she tries to abort their child herself, but botches the attempt and dies in her effort to fight the forces keeping her in her suburban housewife lifestyle. Frank grieves, but soon becomes absorbed by the work he had once despised, and "dies" an inward death.
The Wikipedia plot summary for the movie says they were both cheating on each other, as well.
There was a popular bluegrass song about Duncan and Brady just recently. “He’s been on the job too long!” is the line that sticks in my mind: that would be the sheriff/marshal, I guess.
Well said.
My neighborhood was a cornfield, historically. “Old stuff” here is maybe 120 years old; anything older fell down when people stopped using it.
Thanks. One can easily see that it’s all the fault of living in the suburbs instead of in Paris, where there’s never been any adultery or illegal abortions.
I think it’s just delightful that you’re happy with your home!
I know that the shanty whites basically burned down the black part of town after a black man had nearly assaulted a young white girl while she was sleeping.
bttt
And to add to what you have written: I read on FR the other day that capitalism cannot survive without a moral society.
Have you ever actually lived in a suburb? Or have you formed this conclusion based on "adventures to the suburbs" which sounds to me like a day trip on a tour bus or something?
I have lived in the 'burbs and I found none of that to be true, I mean flatly, bizarrely false. My neighbors didn't even blink when I rode a bike on errands during the $4 gas era, and I doubt they'll be any more put out when I'm doing it again in the spring. Where I grew up, we had a steady string of out-of-the-ordinary automobiles (and some motorcycles, too) coming out of our garage, from open wheel modifieds to 4 wheel drive conversions of profoundly 2 wheel drive cars, like an AMC Gremlin and an El Camino. Nobody ever complained, and all the kids on the street played as a big gang, welcome at every house.
So, having lived in suburban style communities in three states, let's just say I'm more than a little skeptical about your conclusions.
Oui, oui!
I wonder how many of the people who will see the movie and have had heights of near-erotic ecstasy over the book know that the restrictions on abortion in France are so “draconian” that they wouuld be laughed out of court in the U.S. and would have trouble passing in any state legislature here that is to the left of South Dakota’s.
There are some exceptions to the rule. Take for example the two Father of the Bride remakes starring Steve Martin. Those films lovingly embraces the suburbs and suburban living.
But, here are some examples of art cars:
Now, I certainly wouldn't shun anyone who drove those (in fact, I'm starting to think that a string of art cars would be an awesome scale modeling project) but if you drive one of these around on your commute and your neighbors think you're weird, does that really mean they are collectivists?
Nope, no prejudice there!
Print that sentence from your post out, take it to confession and ask your priest if you need to be contrite about it.
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