Life in the suburbs isn’t
The suburbs have been muchmaligned as people move towards inner city living, but Stephen Lacey reckons there’s plenty to celebrate.
It’s been almost seven years since I moved from the suburbs to the inner city. And initially I couldn’t wait to escape suburbia’s insular claws. I swore blue murder I would never return, and in all honesty, I probably won’t. As a freelance writer who relies on contacts and networking, the city is the right place for me. But that’s no excuse for the way I dismissed suburbia and all who lived there.
Week after week, I’d sit there in one of my smug, inner-city cafes, drinking cold-pressed coffee and bagging out the place where I spent the majority of my life.
The suburbs were some limbo-land between country and city, without the charm of either. The inhabitants wallowed in mediocrity, named their children Breeyana and Aydyn, and celebrated the V8 Supercars, jet skis, mainstream FM radio, and concrete stencilled driveways. Yeah, I know, what a shallow, elitist, dickhead. But I’m not the only one. The suburbs have been much maligned in popular culture for years. That’s why we have Kath & Kim and Dame Edna Everage.
It’s why, apart from a handful of exceptions such as Reg Mombassa, artists have largely ignored suburbia.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe the suburbs weren’t such a bad place to live after all. Maybe that’s why I’m getting the seven-year itch and starting to have dreams about cul-de-sacs and council verges of bottle-brush trees.
Here’s the seven things I miss about the suburbs:
Wheelie bin cricket
There’s nothing like using your own street as a cricket pitch, with a wheelie bin as the wicket. Hit the tennis ball into the rear of the neighbour’s Holden ute on the full, and it’s six and out. There’s nothing like using your own street as a cricket pitch.
Washing my own car
In the city, due to lack of room and apartment living, you tend to use a car wash and pay upwards of $40 to get your ride sparkling. In the burbs, everyone washes their own car, in the driveway, with a bucket and a hose. It’s quite a Zen thing to do, especially if the Test cricket is playing on the