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Living outside of suburbia

Little boxes on the hillside...
Last week I shared a poem in my writing class where I used the term “ticky-tacky.”  An interesting conversation took place regarding the usage and history of the lingo.  One of the younger writers wasn’t even familiar with the word, inquiring about the definition.  Since the language was in my piece, I offered to do a bit of sleuthing. 

I was familiar with the song, Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds, which was a political anthology on suburbia in the 1960’s.  She penned the poem, come song after having observed the sprawl of cookie cutter houses and the cloned people who resided in them while driving near Daly City, California.
ticky-tacky
By definition, ticky-tacky refers to the use of shoddy, cheap materials especially in the construction of look-alike tract houses.  However, digging deeper, I found it is also connected to something uninspiring and monotonous, marked by mediocre uniformity.   

Smack!  I think this is also a commentary on today’s way of being.  Like a lab rat, we jump on the treadmill of keeping up; soon finding that we are simply mimicking what is portrayed.  We’ve lost our unique design and are following the stream of lemmings.

Yourdictionary.com puts it this way:  People or things that are tasteless, low quality and the same as others.  Which brings me to a few questions to ask myself:  How’s my quality of life?  Am I the same as others, or am I obvious?  Am I just watching the flimsy, dull assembly or am I grabbing a hammer and paint brush so I can leave a mark? (In a good way, for all of you who think obnoxiously.)

In some ways I am ticky-tacky, but in others I’m exceptionally distinctive.  How about you?

Living outside of suburbia ~ Missy

If you have been mildly amused, challenged or inspired by what you have read, please pass on my blog to a friend, colleague, family member or even random acquaintance.





Comments

  1. Wildlife Art by SylJanuary 13, 2014 at 3:21 PM

    Whoa!!! who am I???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Missy AJanuary 13, 2014 at 3:30 PM

      Food for thought...and a question that I think we need to constantly ask ourselves. The answer varies from day to day.

      Delete

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