Monday 22 November 2010

Suburbia


Every now and again I came across an article that answers a question I had not realized I was asking. I often walk around where I live & wonder what motivates people to do the things they do to their gardens & houses, things that neither my self or husband would dream of doing. And are these actions and decisions indicative of how other parts of their lives are lived. I am talking about privet hedges, washing cars on Sundays, neat tidy gardens and clean windows with net curtians. This seems to go with small pretty dogs, paving slabs or gravel on the drive, regular trips to the supermarket & of course regular visits to the garden centre. I realize now, after reading the article, that I am describing suburbia.
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I have good friends who live happily in some form of suburbia but I have always know that it is not where I can comfortably reside & even less so my husband. Why is this - it is where a majority of the UK's residents live. Just one reading of the key features of suburbia, as described in the Independent's article (8th Oct 2009), explain this easily. Now I list these not to criticize as they are fine values but they are values for some reason I do not have even though they are things my family hold dear. There's the privet hedge, social uniformity, safety, security, comfort, fitting-in, have something "in reserve", living within your means. A sense that safety, suspicion & survelliance are the valued norm. My parents did have a big thing about "drawing the curtains" when the lights were on & having nets at all the windows, locking doors & having no valuables on show - not that there was anything or value that I can particularly recall.
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I am currently living in one of most socially uniform counties in England which starkly contrasts with the cities, towna & villages I have previously worked & lived in. And I miss the colour & variety that more soxially & ethnically mixed places have. I am fully aware that I am extremely fortunate to live in this county with it's chocolate box black & white market towns & orchard-rich, truely beautiful country-side. Sometimes it seems like I've been transported back to the 1940's! I've recently acquired from the library several of Monty Don's books. Dipping into the "Ivington Diaries" (Bloomsbury) I came upon a piece about cities (and moles) and felt it resonnate:
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..."Most Britons live in towns or suburbs and most get their countryside from a car window, Emmerdale or The Archers. I am out of kilter, unrepresentative snd hopelessly marginalized.

This does not bother me in the least. But I do have to restrain myself from time to time from writing about things that have a major impact on me & my garden but which probably have no relevance to the majority of people's lives".
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So I feel good knowing for sure where I do not belong (with suburbia), the tribe I dont belong to. And the tribe I do belong to - well I'm sure that to will name itself when I least expect it.
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