[AussieD]

Not sure if this is the right place. Didn't know where else to put it. We'watched the movie Revolutionary Road yesterday. And am wondering how far the suburbs were back in the 1950s ,when the movie was set, away from the major cities. Just wondering, I guess, why people felt so trapped in suburbia. It's not the first time Mick and I have come across it in books and films. Also wondering if that trapped feeling with suburbia is common still today. I grew up in Australian Suburbia and have lived most of my life in the suburbs but never felt like that. I actually liked the suburbs. Maybe I'm the one who's odd?
If you want to have a look at some thoughts about the movie, Revolutionary Road head on over to the Marriage blog -Picture of a Marriage.

[twinzplus3]

That's an interesting observation Dale. We are considered a suburb of NYC and are almost an hour away. However, Yonkers is also a NYC suburb and it's 20 min. away so there's some variation around major cities. Never felt trapped. . .but have also felt like I'm exactly where God has called me to be.

[mcmama]

Yonkers is a small city, bordering on NYC (Bronx). I can drive in NYC, I cannot drive in Yonkers. It's urban, with hills and winding roads. You don't need a car in Yonkers, but it helps.

Take the bus out to White Plains, or Rye, and it feels more like a suburb, even though there is a lot of traffic, office buildings, commerce, etc.

Back in the day, (when my parents moved from the city part of Miami near Flagler Dog Track to Perrine, which now is called "Palmetto Bay") if you could not drive you were stuck. So my mom had to learn to drive. Lots of women did not drive then. When she would take us to the library, we drove 45 minutes to South Miami or Coconut Grove. There was no South Dade library then. She didn't want to change the pediatrician, so we would drive FOREVER to get to downtown Miami. Cultural life? Forget about it, unless you went to downtown, or Miami Beach - and drove and drove and drove to get there. There was NO public transportation, since cars were of course the way of the future.

Since then, South Dade County has developed highways, libraries, a government center, and of course, hospitals, schools, doctors. It now feels like Kendall is a second downtown. And of course Miami has a Metrorail, so you don't have to drive and drive and drive to get downtown. But except for the parts that have always been urban, it still feels like one giant sprawling suburb of itself.

Other suburbs I think had similiar problems - needed a car, no public transportation, no community center, limited cultural life. Just stick mom in the house with a Maytag, teach her to drive, and she should just be the happiest woman on earth. Today when we plan communities, things are a bit different. And some suburbs have taken on a community feel of their own.

[AussieD]

Thanks Valorie and Janet for putting things in context a bit for this Aussie. I guess it would be rather like some of Sydney's outer suburbs then. And some of those were severly lacking in public transport. Of course it's no different where we are now, but like Valorie I feel I am exacatly whre God wants me. That's a wonderful feeling.

[twinzplus3]

I often think contentment and joy is a choice to "lay down our cross daily" or rather I like the imagery of being "yoked". But I don't think that society tends to see it that way generally speaking, and so the "stuck in the suburbs" scenario seems to be a common theme. In real life, I have now met oodles of people that say, "Gosh I don't know how you lived in the city." They have no concept that we lived in the innter city. . .but just the idea that there are so many people etc.

[AussieD]

I think it is a choice too, Valorie. Once I would have thought we would never leave the city. God had other ideas. When we lived in rural Australia I used to hear some funny ideas about living in the city from those who had never lived there, and I used to think it was a long way from my experience. Now I just love living where God has put us- in our little quarter acre block in paradise.

[Samual]

When my parents bought a house in America, they were very shocked when houses described as rural, were actually in the centre of towns, here rural means no other civilisation for miles around.

[Magic_Mikki]

I obviously don't know what it wouldn like in the 50's, but I live in the "suburbs" of St. Paul/Minneapolis. It takes me about 5-10 minutes to get to downtown St. Paul and about 10-15 minutes to get to Minneapolis. I live in a town called Woodbury. All cities that surround St. Paul/Minneapolis are considered suburbs here, even though it's just outside the city. As a matter of fact, my address is St. Paul, and Woodbury isn't even recognized when it comes to things like mapquest, even though it's a town of about 40,000.

[AussieD]

Thanks everyone. 40,000 would be the size of a largish country town in Australia, somewhere like Orange which is in NSW. And no, it doesn't grow oranges but aples, cherries and stone fruits. Rural here would be anything outside the major cities.

[mcmama]

Originally Posted by Samual

When my parents bought a house in America, they were very shocked when houses described as rural, were actually in the centre of towns, here rural means no other civilisation for miles around.

If I recall correctly in another conversation, you said your parents had bought in Rockland County, NY. Rural there and in Dutchess, Westchester and Putnam counties probably does not meet the same description as it does elsewhere in the USA. Those areas do contain some very large state parks, so they have a rural feel to them, but it's not quite the same like going further upstate into the Catskills and even further north.

I live in an unincorporated area that is generally considered suburban, but we do have spots here where people keep horses. Further north of me you have rural, with wetlands, farms, and hunting areas (and bears).