Garages

The garage at my house is different than any other garage that my friends have....I didn't even know that it was a garage until I was in middle school. My house that I've grew up in is a really old farmhouse so the garage is a really old garage. It has to doors that swing open like a set a french doors, but they aren't as pretty. There is definitely no garage door opener either you have to open them by hand and they are super heavy. Looking at it now I doubt that it was used for cars because there is a general area where a car might be able to go but it would have to be small and above it is an attic space. My family basically uses this "garage" to store our holiday decorations in and all of our junk that clutters the house. Now this is completely different from the garages I see now. Friends of my family recently just built a new garage (or I should say garageS) onto their new house. This is a 3 car garage that has super high ceilings. In it they can comfortably fit all three of their vehicles, a washer and dryer, a sink, AND there is a sections set aside as a wood shop/tool area for her husband. This thing is enormous, and I don't know the exact dimensions of it but I almost feel like it would equal the measurements of their living quarters. Its just massive. I was talking to my mom about it and I guess they put a lot of emphasize on the garage because they use it so much. Their kids put a lot of their toys and bikes in it and its convenient because its attached to the house so then no mud is dragged inside. I don't know if I personally would put that kind of money is an area where I don't entertain or relax but I can kind of understand their reasoning.

I see this type of garage structure a lot with newer houses. If I were to compare the new garages of today to the most recent ones that Jackson talked about in his readings I would say they are somewhat similar. Most new garages have washer and dryers in them as well as being used to store things for the family like food, but I think they have definitely increased in size. More families are owning up to 3 or4 cars so they need more space to store them, so then garages have gone from two car garages to three car garages. Also I see new areas being included underneath the garage roof, such as wood shops and even office spaces. People can work at home but not have their work directly inside their house. Instead they can walk out through their garage and walk into an enclosed little corner giving them the feeling they are at work, and not just at home. My aunt runs a catering business this way, and her "office" is a little boxed in area in her garage where she goes to make phone calls and things of that matter. I've also noticed that with new houses the garages are much more obvious and even placed in the font of the house, so many times I notice the garage before the actual home. When Jackson was talking about the first garages built he stated that many were placed in the back behind the house as a way to hide the preparations of the car and the dirt and oil aspects of the upkeep. Now people are putting their garages out for show. Another small little fact I noticed that Jackson brought up was that when the garages were eventually moved out front they almost represented the family that lived there with things like the basketball hoop connected to the garage. It made the home seem more family friendly and American. Now I don't see so many hoops actually attached to the garages. Most are portable nets that are just placed in the drive way...I bet a lot of that idea had to do with broken garage doors and windows! One last thing about garages is that you see families putting so much more effort into the interior decorating aspect of them. Now people are putting in special flooring that does not deteriorate under the leaking cars and you see high tech tool benched that surround the walls. I know from personal experience how much work people put into their garages now. Just last summer my boyfriend offered to lay a coat of paint on his parents garage that prevents slipping and grip as well as that can be long lasting underneath the cars. Then I offered to help him...time I will ever do that. It was a horrible experience to lay the coating on the floor and last just this past winter we noticed that bits were coming off, what a waste of time! but thats the way people are thinking now a days. 

The "Sitcom Suburb"

Our readings for this week covered the topic of postwar housing and the neighborhoods that they were situated in. In the readings by Jackson he illustrates the new approaches and ideas that people of the post war were starting to favor. Jackson tells a story about the Tinkham family, who were originally more farm based, but with time and new generational ideas they become more modern and started to stray from their traditional ways of life. The story consists is made up of few characters, Ray and Shirley Tinkham, their children Don and Billie-Jean, and Ray's father "The Old Man." What the story is mostly about is Ray's new attitude and idea about the post war era. he is becoming more modernized and it is reflecting on all aspects of his life including his home, his job, his family, and his farm. His father throughout the story remains attached to the farm and to more traditional values, and Shirley follows Ray's belief and relies on technology and advancements within the home to do her work for her. In the story Ray moves away from the farmstead and builds a house completely different from the house that "The Old Man," resides in. Ray's new house depends solely on convenience. It was built with a simple design to ensure that it would not require a lot of maintenance and dedication. It was also designed to help Ray separate his work life from his home life. By building in a central location right in the middle of the farmhouse and the more rural areas, Ray could escape from work and relax. Ray and his wife kept the design as simple and as basic as possible, focusing not so much on the decorative aspect but more on the convenience. They filled the house with labor saving devices such as a dishwasher and garbage disposal. They limited the amount of un-necessary rooms so there was less area to clean and look after. The whole design and structure of the house was based on efficiency. It was meant to do the work for itself with the help of technological advances. The farmhouse on the other hand had more of a history. It was built in a spot that held a type of emotional attachment. It also required much more maintenance than Ray's home. It was also father away from rural life, and literally work and home were considered one. The farm house also held a type of permanence. With Ray's home there was no emotional attachment that went into the building, instead i was looked at mainly as a place to sleep and shelter themselves in, whereas the farm held a sentimental value to it where bonds were formed and memories were made. The farmhouse had excessive amounts of room so that company could be entertained in them. In Shirley's home she couldn't imagine going through all that work entertaining people so why would she build extra rooms for it. These were just some of the more obvious differences between the two houses. I think that by Jackson telling this story he is showing how fast paced post war America was becoming, and how more individuals were beginning to take up this one way vision of moving forward in a convenient and efficient way. While Ray's home does appear the give him more freedoms it does not give him a connection to anything. Jackson states in the reading that his wife not only depends on the house to do the work for her but over time she will expect it to raise her family as well. With all of these new innovations and modern ways of living Jackson is proving there is a loss or traditional family values and morals.

Another one of our readings talked about the 1950's and 60's style homes that were referred to as the "Sitcom Suburbs." These were also post war houses set up in post war neighborhoods. It's funny to me because when I actually notice these types of neighborhoods I can definitely see the resemblance to the sitcoms that the writers and architects of the time were comparing them too. They do have a type of "pleasantville" look to them. Critics of the time like Lewis Mumford characterizes these places as areas of conformity in both artistic design and social interaction. Going down certain streets in Buffalo like Millersport Highway, or streets located off of Niagara Falls Boulevard, I can agree with him. These types of houses all look the same. They truly do look like little houses created out out squares and right angles. While not every single house is the same as the next and there may be some differences, their basic designs and structures are the same. They are also so close in proximity and dimension, such as they all seem the exact same distance from the sidewalk, and they all have the same walkway leading to the same doorway, that its hard not to stand at the end of a street and just see a replica house over and over again. This type of layout only makes the streets looked lined with tiny boxes. To me they do not seem to hold any type of individuality, but I will say it makes these types of neighborhoods look like they hold a type of unity within them. There is usually a school nearby or a park where all of the children can come together. I know in the areas off of Niagara Falls Blvd as well as near Millersport there are golf courses and club houses. So these do make up for the lack of originality but they still look like Little Boxes, as represented in the song by Malvina Reynolds.