Sprawled and vulnerable – stop thinking of the suburbs in stereo
Shoving lobster tofu in your face, next-door neighbor Mirena sucks in the air she will later expend in expostulating what frozen food isle you should walk down to create such exoticism. After enduring a brief interlude from this -- more recipe flinging, stories of in-ground pool construction, and name-swapping contractors -- another neighborly confrontation concerning a wondrous food item at this year’s annual street party is directed at you – “very simple perogie recipe! Just thaw and bake! They come pre sour creamed!”
The suburb you live in is referred to in brochures as a “golfing community” comprising an ever-expanding corner network off of hiway 5. Patches of the green are wound through thick brick and high glass homes with a bay window option, live ducks bob in the manmade lake in the summer, and “Millcroft Park” shimmers on a brushed brass plate pinned to a bucolic water mill which stands at an angle, half-inviting, and half-notifying approaching visitors. Wonderbread and Starbucks wielding SUVs litter the landscape, and the corner plaza boasts amenities like a botox clinic, a high-end pet food and apparel store, and a specialty gourmet grocery. The area seems to have imagined affluence – and with a feeling of affluence comes a necessary step towards the facilitation of such status. Did I mention your taxes are sky high?
You’ve only live in the now ten year old development for five years. Where you grew up, a 60s era suburb in
