Trunk or Treat
Friday, October 28th, 2022 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioHalloween at Grape Elementary!.. Hoo, my God!.. I only caught the tail end of it, but all the kids were in costumes, and many were wrapping each other up in toilet paper like mummys! They were playing games in the halls... like tossing bean bags and stuff... and I heard they had a costume parade earlier in the day?..
And then, when I left, at 7PM, Trunk or Treat was in full swing in the parking lot so... damn!
Is this just how it's always been at public schools?.. or is this a 21st Century thing?... Cuz at my Catholic grade school, back in the 1970s, we'd maybe get to make a dumb jack-o-lantern out of construction paper in art class and that was IT!
Whatever the case, I do think it's a good thing, that for these kids, excessive Halloween celebration is being sanctioned, encouraged, and wholeheartedly enabled by the school administration!
But I do still think Trunk or Treat is a bit sad :(
I mean, in this case it wasn't sad, because it was on the Friday before Halloween, so these kids effectively get two shots at collecting candy, but... by itself, on Halloween Night... Trunk or Treat is kinda sad.
--<>--
Like... these upper-middleclass subdivision people live these lives that are so vehicle-centric, that they actually think it's fun to hang out in a gigantic parking lot!
They spend so much of their lives in gigantic parking lots... trudging back and forth from the vehicle to the gigantic box stores... that are, themeslves, just sprawling acres of linoleum, with four distant walls, and a gigantic corrugated roof.
Even when they drive, they only drive on gigantic, six lane highways, going endless miles, in insanely dense traffic to get from home, to work, to school, to the store, to... some entertainment destination that is also an enormous concrete box in a gigantic parking lot... but with hours long lines... like Dad and I saw at Abbey Farm a few weeks back!
--<>--
It's just such an alien lifestyle!
And I feel like it's all done in the name of... staying away from the lower middle class!
Like... you can't go too far into the rural reaches or... you're gonna have to live with the lower middle class!
But... you can't go too far into the urban metro or... you're gonna have to live with the lower middle class!
So they've carved out this weird twilight zone world of their own, where manicured little subdivisions are ruled over by petty HOAs, and all the other places they need to go, are faaaar away, sitting in gigantic parking lots!
------------{=0=}------------
I'm going to be self indulgent, and self congratulating here, and say that I'm quite happy to be living on the semi-urban grid, of an old river city... in a working class neighborhood... where there still are walkable destinations, like a little bodega, or a haircut salon...
And a lot of other destinations, easily drivable in five minutes, throughout the grid of two lane, 35MPH streets...
Including a downtown that has street parking, and a few bars, shops, and interesting old architecture...
And parking lots in other spots that... are NOT gigantic.
Yes, it's all a little run down. Yes, it's lower to mid-middle class. But it's sane!
And we don't have the throngs of trick or treaters we used to have, prowling the streets, going from house to house... but we still do have some.
And we welcome them!
And for the kids who do get to pound the pavement of the sidewalk cement, block after straight block... lined with parkings and fat trees, venturing round the corners down the side streets... they're getting the full experience!
Every house and yard unique in all of it's characteristics, from the architecture, to the trees, to the crazy decorations... every person at the door a stranger, you may never have met... but who proves to be quite nice!..
The crunching leaves... the cars rolling slowly down the narrow streets...
And this awareness that it's not just you and your band... but you're part of this bigger thing, that's taking place all over town... down every street as far as you can see... this is city wide!
This is a real, city wide, EVENT!
--<>--
And that totally dominates... riding in a vehicle to do Trunk or Treating in a gigantic parking lot... in which there is just a small, wagon circle of trusted, upper middle class aquaintances of Mom & Dad... surrounded by a vast, darkly lit expanse of empty asphalt, and the headlights of heavy highway traffic in the distance.
It dominates... going round the twisting little circles and courts of your subdivision to visit all the members of Mom & Dad's HOA, in their cookie-cutter houses, and perfectly groomed yards, with HOA approved decorations... totally insulated from... even the next subdivision!
--<>--
These people are victims of their... slightly above average, middle class incomes!
They could live in the hood if they wanted, and pocket the difference!
But they don't, and instead they pay to live in a gaping, asphalt savannah, trapped in their vehicles... sitting in traffic for hours... to stand in long lines... to hoard bulk goods... to store in their cold, echoey, open-plan homes.
Is it worth it?... for some fleeting illusion of success and safety?
--<>--
Urban metro's pay for their own maintenance with taxes, due to population density. And rural sectors also pay for their maintenance, with food production.
Suburban sprawl sectors require tons of infrastructure maintenance that they just don't have the population density, or productivity to cover.
This is why so many subdivisions and shopping centers wind up abandoned after just a few decades.
The upper middle class just moves further out... away from the ghost settlements... to poplulate new ones, funded by venture capital... that will only last a few decades... and make the drive times even longer... the parking lots even bigger... the isolation even sadder...
Like interplanetary colonists, going further and further out into the depths, to smaller and more hostile panetoids... all the while telling themselves...
We are successful!.. and Trunk or Treat is fun!
------------{=0=}------------
I know this devolved into a pretty harsh take.
This is why I don't normally post on Friday nights.
I'm old, and opinionated, and I've been drinking.
So take me with a grain of salt.
But... that's why Trunk or Treat makes me sad :(
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
And then, when I left, at 7PM, Trunk or Treat was in full swing in the parking lot so... damn!
Is this just how it's always been at public schools?.. or is this a 21st Century thing?... Cuz at my Catholic grade school, back in the 1970s, we'd maybe get to make a dumb jack-o-lantern out of construction paper in art class and that was IT!
Whatever the case, I do think it's a good thing, that for these kids, excessive Halloween celebration is being sanctioned, encouraged, and wholeheartedly enabled by the school administration!
But I do still think Trunk or Treat is a bit sad :(
I mean, in this case it wasn't sad, because it was on the Friday before Halloween, so these kids effectively get two shots at collecting candy, but... by itself, on Halloween Night... Trunk or Treat is kinda sad.
Like... these upper-middleclass subdivision people live these lives that are so vehicle-centric, that they actually think it's fun to hang out in a gigantic parking lot!
They spend so much of their lives in gigantic parking lots... trudging back and forth from the vehicle to the gigantic box stores... that are, themeslves, just sprawling acres of linoleum, with four distant walls, and a gigantic corrugated roof.
Even when they drive, they only drive on gigantic, six lane highways, going endless miles, in insanely dense traffic to get from home, to work, to school, to the store, to... some entertainment destination that is also an enormous concrete box in a gigantic parking lot... but with hours long lines... like Dad and I saw at Abbey Farm a few weeks back!
It's just such an alien lifestyle!
And I feel like it's all done in the name of... staying away from the lower middle class!
Like... you can't go too far into the rural reaches or... you're gonna have to live with the lower middle class!
But... you can't go too far into the urban metro or... you're gonna have to live with the lower middle class!
So they've carved out this weird twilight zone world of their own, where manicured little subdivisions are ruled over by petty HOAs, and all the other places they need to go, are faaaar away, sitting in gigantic parking lots!
I'm going to be self indulgent, and self congratulating here, and say that I'm quite happy to be living on the semi-urban grid, of an old river city... in a working class neighborhood... where there still are walkable destinations, like a little bodega, or a haircut salon...
And a lot of other destinations, easily drivable in five minutes, throughout the grid of two lane, 35MPH streets...
Including a downtown that has street parking, and a few bars, shops, and interesting old architecture...
And parking lots in other spots that... are NOT gigantic.
Yes, it's all a little run down. Yes, it's lower to mid-middle class. But it's sane!
And we don't have the throngs of trick or treaters we used to have, prowling the streets, going from house to house... but we still do have some.
And we welcome them!
And for the kids who do get to pound the pavement of the sidewalk cement, block after straight block... lined with parkings and fat trees, venturing round the corners down the side streets... they're getting the full experience!
Every house and yard unique in all of it's characteristics, from the architecture, to the trees, to the crazy decorations... every person at the door a stranger, you may never have met... but who proves to be quite nice!..
The crunching leaves... the cars rolling slowly down the narrow streets...
And this awareness that it's not just you and your band... but you're part of this bigger thing, that's taking place all over town... down every street as far as you can see... this is city wide!
This is a real, city wide, EVENT!
And that totally dominates... riding in a vehicle to do Trunk or Treating in a gigantic parking lot... in which there is just a small, wagon circle of trusted, upper middle class aquaintances of Mom & Dad... surrounded by a vast, darkly lit expanse of empty asphalt, and the headlights of heavy highway traffic in the distance.
It dominates... going round the twisting little circles and courts of your subdivision to visit all the members of Mom & Dad's HOA, in their cookie-cutter houses, and perfectly groomed yards, with HOA approved decorations... totally insulated from... even the next subdivision!
These people are victims of their... slightly above average, middle class incomes!
They could live in the hood if they wanted, and pocket the difference!
But they don't, and instead they pay to live in a gaping, asphalt savannah, trapped in their vehicles... sitting in traffic for hours... to stand in long lines... to hoard bulk goods... to store in their cold, echoey, open-plan homes.
Is it worth it?... for some fleeting illusion of success and safety?
Urban metro's pay for their own maintenance with taxes, due to population density. And rural sectors also pay for their maintenance, with food production.
Suburban sprawl sectors require tons of infrastructure maintenance that they just don't have the population density, or productivity to cover.
This is why so many subdivisions and shopping centers wind up abandoned after just a few decades.
The upper middle class just moves further out... away from the ghost settlements... to poplulate new ones, funded by venture capital... that will only last a few decades... and make the drive times even longer... the parking lots even bigger... the isolation even sadder...
Like interplanetary colonists, going further and further out into the depths, to smaller and more hostile panetoids... all the while telling themselves...
We are successful!.. and Trunk or Treat is fun!
I know this devolved into a pretty harsh take.
This is why I don't normally post on Friday nights.
I'm old, and opinionated, and I've been drinking.
So take me with a grain of salt.
But... that's why Trunk or Treat makes me sad :(
°¦}
