As I say, the lawns create a sense of isolation. When my daughter, her husband, and their seven children lived in this house, the flat terrain and careful drivers made this place an Eden for skating, riding bikes and scooters, and long walks.īut they’ve moved, and so did the large family catty-cornered to their home, and the street nowadays is quiet and nearly always deserted.įor those who love privacy-and I do-this aspect of the neighborhood is ideal. One advantage to the larger lots is that there are fewer residents, which, in turn, make the neighborhood safer for children in terms of traffic. We wave to each other, but I know none of them by name. Every day, I do see some familiar faces-the man who walks his beautiful Siberian husky, the woman who drives her children in a golf cart in good weather to meet the school bus, and the elderly woman who takes her two small dogs to pick up the mail from the line of boxes. The broad lawns act as buffers, setting the neighbors apart. Turn onto the street where I live, and that scenario is utterly changed. ![]() One girl enjoys riding up and down the block on her miniature ATV, and seems a favorite of those she passes. Frequently, when I pass, I see some of them standing in their yards, visiting and laughing together. Because their houses are set more closely together and because they may have lived in the neighborhood longer than the rest of us, these people seem to know one another. The residents of the older homes spend a good deal of time outdoors in good weather, perhaps to escape the confines of their smaller homes. Houses set closer together can make for more interaction with neighbors. Unlike my immediate neighbors, I spend a lot of time on my front porch, and these houses, lawns, and the neighborhood, in general, have occasionally brought some long thoughts.įirst up is an observation on the link between architecture and social life. Here are gazebos and ponds, long driveways, and various outbuildings. Built about 15 years ago, most are two-story homes with attached garages, and the lawns are two and three times broader than those of the older houses.ĭrive another block or so west, and you arrive at the latest additions to the neighborhood, veritable mansions set back from the road and framed with immense lawns. When you turn onto the street where I currently live-I am resident caretaker for the property, my daughter and her family having recently moved to Pennsylvania-you’ll discover many of the houses are much larger. ![]() These houses are close together, with spacious back yards and driveways crammed with various vehicles. When you first enter the neighborhood, you drive past a long block of houses built in the 1980s and 1990s. ![]() My neighborhood in Front Royal, Virginia, vividly depicts this statistic. The average size of a new American home these days is 2,600 square feet, double the size of houses built 40 years ago.
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