From: 4joyces at mchsi.com <4joyces>
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 12:47:09 +0000

I've been away, but want to chime in on the vacant lot memories: in my middleclass suburban neighborhood, growing up, vacant lots were the places we went to be away from the civilizing influences of "yards" with their neatly cut grass and rules. As Nancy Garden says, it's where we could let imagination run wild, play endless games of hide-and-seek and make believe. They were also a testing ground; just kids with kids--no comforting/restrictive influence of parents. If a bully showed up, you had to deal with him/her the best you could, with a couple of buddies around you. Vacant lots had an air both of retreat and danger, like Little Red Riding Hood's woods.

Perhaps, for its children, every community needs both a civilizing garden (as in Seedfolks) AND a "wild" vacant lot? Yet when I got back to that old neighborhood, of course, every vacant lot is filled in with a neat little house . . .

Joyce Sidman
Received on Mon 06 Oct 2003 07:47:09 AM CDT