Posted by WorryGirl on May 13, 2003, at 21:02:39
In reply to Re: The cheap life, posted by whiterabbit on May 13, 2003, at 15:15:16
> Eddie-Thought you would enjoy this excerpt from a nonfiction book I'm reading, "Blind Faith" by Joe McGinniss:
>
> "By 1980 there were more than 65,000 people in Toms River (New Jersey), 99.6 percent of them white...These new arrivals were no more affluent, individually, than had been their predecessors in the sixties, but there were so many of them that, for the first time, there seemed to be a lot of money in Toms River. Enough, anyway, so that...shopping-especially at the Ocean County Mall-became the area's most popular recreational activity.
> Each weekday morning the shuttle buses from the various retirement communities would file slowly into the mall's vast parking lot to discharge their cargo of the stooped and frail, come to wander, dazed, among the altars of consumerism.
> I SHOP, THEREFORE I AM.
> Younger residents would arrive by private car...It was the primary source of diversion for teenagers and housewives as well as the elderly...
> 'The Ocean County Mall was filled to capacity this holiday weekend as avid buyers with no better way to occupy their spare time once again made thousands of unnecessary purchases.'
> There seemed to be an emptiness at the core of their lives-these tens of thousands of new arrivals who found themselves stranded in a land without character or style, trapped in a vacuum that only possessions could fill.
> There was nothing unique about that. Hollowness at the core of American middle-class life has engaged the attention of social commentators for a quarter century or more. It's just that in Toms River you got a highly concentrated dose...
> Thus, the acquisition of objects that would make it appear that their owner was affluent, and therefore successful and desirable, became an important task...In Toms River you were what you drove, you were what you wore, you were where you lived-no matter how heavily mortgaged it was...
> A lot of Cadillacs were bought, a lot of wives drove all the way to Short Hills so they could shop at Bloomingdale's instead of Bamberger's, and a lot of backyards found room for swimming pools even though the ocean was less than ten miles away.
> It became, in fact, a mark of status to brag about how long it had been since one had actually gone to the beach...There were people who bought houses in Brookside and then discovered that they had no money left with which to furnish them. This meant that for months or even years they could not invite anyone to dinner...So instead they joined the country club, which they couldn't afford either, because at the country club they would be able to socialize with the kind of people they were trying to become.
> The country club crowd took itself very seriously,
> even though the building looked as if it had been made from LEGOS and even though its members had only a nine-hole golf course to play on and even though they had only each other to impress on Saturday night...
> It was neither an easy or rewarding way to live: that barrenness, that ABYSS covered only by a thin veneer of apparent affluence which they had to strive desperately to maintain..."
>
> There's more, but you get the idea. I read this myself with a big grin; the author's obvious distaste for this way of life and the shallow people who live it is pretty much right on the mark, in my book.
>
> So you go get your house. You won't have time to worry about what anyone else thinks of it because
> you'll be very busy with that kind of house, I'm telling you from experience. I live in a rather, umm, bohemian neighborhood in the middle of the city, in a tall skinny brick house over 100 years old. These old houses, they need a lot of care-
> you must be devoted to their upkeep or they'll fall apart, but in return they'll love you back.
> You get things like stained glass windows, marvelous fireplaces, pocket doors, butler's pantry, solid, heavy construction, occasional
> surprises (sometimes good ones!)and a sense of history that you just cannot buy in a new tract home.
>
> Good luck to you-
> Gracie
I'd like to read "Blind Faith". It sounds interesting. If you haven't already read it (it was required reading for me), "Babbitt", by Sinclair Lewis, also sums up the hollowness of middle class life following the life of a rather financially successful, but unfulfilled man in the 1920s.I live in the heart of it, and it really is all about shopping and status around here in the 'burbs. Some of these people want so badly for everyone to think they are RICH and POWERFUL, even though many of them are probably heavily in debt. I'm extremely satisfied with our humble little $125K house in the subdivision no one notices or cares about.
Because of my social phobia I tend to avoid shopping, especially malls, which doesn't exactly help me connect to some of the people around here. When I'm up to it (maybe once a year) I do like to browse in the more bohemian areas such as Grant Park, Cabbagetown, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland, etc. Goodwill is actually one of my favorite stores, and I have met some of the friendliest, most interesting people there.
poster:WorryGirl
thread:226042
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030506/msgs/226459.html