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| The 'burbs described in Part IV were the first of their type. They were the first stops on the way out of close, ethnic neighborhoods in urban areas, made possible by the new throughways, and mass-produced housing. And, of course, by the post-War boom, rising optimism, and generous government aid to returning veterans. The instructor/coordinator's wife grew up in such a suburb, in a small house which was added onto as the family grew, and is now surrounded by other housing, both between the suburb (formerly farmland) and the city, and beyond, into further former farmland. What has long struck me about this particular suburb is how small the original houses are, and how much yard there was. The houses have grown, and the yards have shrunk, as they were added onto. The yards still seem big to me, although my first adult house and yard, in South Bend, Ind., were similar. And, the houses didn't seem too small, to those escaping apartments or duplexes or the third floor in crowded houses, in many of which at least one of the young marrieds had grown up. It is interesting that we now have families of four building McMansions, that seem large enough to include an entire small apartment building. Again, there are socio-economic forces at work: when the stock market was on the rise, in the late 1990s, a house was just another big-ticket item to buy, when it seemed the money would never stop. Since 2000, housing has continued to boom, apparently because of the belief that it is a good investment, in less certain economic times. In any event, standards have certainly changed since those post-War suburbs were built. But back to those McMansions: think about what some of the other factors are, that account for such blatant expenditures. What's with that? |
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