JobSurfer

Here’s a nice contrast to my post about Upstate NY yesterday. On my way home from work this evening I decided to take the circuitous route home. After all, I have a bike, and bike rides are fun. So no problem.

I wandered through the section of town with the million-dollar homes. Great big huge things they all are. I can’t imagine what people do with all of that space, but perhaps I’m just not creative enough for that. The streets were lined with trees, as they are wont to do, and despite the incongruity of those huge, shiny new houses, it smelled familiar. It smelled like trees and grass like the world is supposed to, and I like that. And I like that I can find that smell just around the corner from my apartment complex.

But despite that delicious smell, it seemed like some things were missing. Most of these houses didn’t have a front porch. Now, you have to understand, where I come from, the front porch is where all the action is. That’s where you sit to do things, and where you sit to not do things. You drink your tea there in the morning, and you split a bottle of wine with your neighbors in the evening. So to see rows and rows of homes without that necessary element is just… creepy. Where do you sit to watch the neighborhood? Where do you and your neighbors hang out? DO you hang out?

I guess I’m spoiled. I grew up in a neighborhood with not a lot of money, not very much square footage, and in 1985 my parents bought our house for $50,000 - but we sure had a lot of neighborliness. Seems like that’s what this city is really missing.

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