the garage a world of wonder

I never thought about looking at garages until reading this chapter. I found it so interesting that now thinking back to homes i've been to how many of them either have a garage that looks as though it is another room on their house versus my other friends homes whose garage is behind the house with a small strip of driveway leading to a free standing structure. Its interesting to look at the change of the garage from its original practical use for car storage and how it like a stable was away from the home and hidden in the back landscape of the home. However then the garages were added as a piece of the home structure. What I find interesting now is that garages more than just car storage structures but as Jackson touched on a place for many other things. Some garages are totally for storage. I know that my garage is solely for the storage of my dads motorcycle, lawnmower, snowblower, bicycles and many other assorted tools and orange out door extension cords. Also the Garage is a place to party, I can't tell you how many summer parties I've been too in which the garage was similar to the basement or the living room. It can hold a decent amount of people as well as its dirty proof being such a cement structure. It also is a man's space to work on his many mechanic like things. So many of my male friends at home have their sanctuaries in the garage. Its a common image, "where's dad?" "working in the garage" it is the place were men can be men with their power tools and head poked under the hood of their fast 69 mustang while ignoring every single word you say to them. Lastly the garage has become the entrance way to so many homes. When you are formally going into a home yes the front door is still the main way to enter a home however if you are driving over to you boyfriends home and are no longer really a guest it is common to go through the garage door. The garage entrance use is a symbolic way to tell you that you are no longer a formal guest in that home but rather a "regular" in that specific home. I know that my good friends mother gets really pissy if i use the front door and will actually yell at me if i don't come through the garage and always jokes "your no longer a special guest in this home come through the garage with the rest of the family" in some ways being allowed to go through the garage is like being inducted into a new family. Also random anecdote as a child the garage to me was a place to explore at my grandmothers there was always really great things to look through and play with even if we weren't suppose to. Not to mention a pretty large task when climbing through the mounds and mounds of junk just to get your bike out as you pull it through the garbage cans, six other bikes belonging to the other six grandchildren, and two scooters and being scared to death to look at the deer head in the eye in the back corner of the garage. The garage is a really interesting space with a rather very unique smell.

Suburbs

Suburbia is a promised land. A Land in which one can have their own space, home, community. The ideal of suburbia was never the actual out come. When looking at suburban communities it makes me laugh to read of the promises it was meant to give. Suburbia is a surreal attempt at creating a sense of environment. Yes some of us in suburbia have a yard but our yard is cut into a small square with bushes that are not natural but trimmed to frame the beautiful house that is built on the property. Is that really a natural setting of course not it is an attempt of man's triumph over nature. Ray and Shirley Tinkham’s idea of their new home is much different than today's Suburbanite experience. Yes it was a change from the farming ways of the old and the functionality of the home as well as a push to what we know about suburban living today. However there was still somewhat of a sense of the natural where as today suburbia is a gridded square piece of perfectly cut grass and perfectly hedged plant life with a boxed home looking similar usually to all the other homes on the block. I have a friend that lives in a development in the richer part of my home town and I always laugh when I drive in to her complex because if it was dark I would most likely pull into someone else's driveway because it looks as thought someone took a stamp of one type of home and just punched it over and over again into the landscape. There is no sense of individuality except maybe for a few coats of a different color shutter paint or maybe a rather creative landscaping job in the front yard. But in general there very few homes that are strikingly unlike the others were I am from.