Television programs from the 1950s like "Father Knows Best" helped embed the single-family home in the American mind as a symbol of everything that was good. Jim Anderson, who worked in the insurance industry, came home weekdays to have dinner with his wife and three children in the dining room. Outside was a yard. Upstairs from the dining room the Andersons had their bedrooms.
Economic realities of the second decade of the 21st century are deep-sixing that symbolism. THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that home ownership in the U.S. has dropped to 66.4 percent. It's supposed to go lower. Not only is owning a home not perceived as a solid investment [actually it never was]. It's become such a worry that it's lost plenty of its halo. Visit a friend or colleague whose house value is under water and there isn't much warm and fuzzy associated with what was once anointed as a piece of heaven.
The apartment will roar back as a platform for living, having friends over, and working out conflicts with our significant others. "I Love Lucy" was so refreshing back in that time when we were all supposed to want to be The Andersons because the Richardo family resided in an apartment. They had fights. They kept information from one another. Their friends who also lived in an apartment came to visit.
Despite the wild popularity of "I Love Lucy," at the free art lessons at the Jersey City Public Library, the instructor insisted we portray where we lived as a single-family house. No fool, I didn't sketch out the five railroad-room apartment on the third floor of a tenement in which not ony my family but relatives immigrating from Poland also went about our lives. At the end of the 1990s, I thought I had made it when I purchased on the Gold Coast of Connecticut a house just like the Anderson's.
More multi-unit buildings are going up, reports THE NEW YORK TIMES. Children born now might consider the single-family home not only a dumb financial move but very unsustainable. Trees will belong in the park, not surrounding a human dwelling.
It is fun to watch a classic series like "Father Knows Best" with a friend of a family. I am so glad it is still loved by many people. That was the favorite TV program of my grandfather.
Posted by: Cleveland Critzer | November 25, 2011 at 08:10 AM
Who could've predicted that Ed James would create such an epic comedy in the 40s? My Granpa told me that he can still remember the characters' voices. I wish they would do a remake of this.
Posted by: Andews Hayes | November 11, 2011 at 12:27 PM
Wonder what are the viands when you had your dinner with Jim Anderson, wish I could've joined you guys lol. Well it's hard to find good apartments nowadays, I'd rather spend the money I earned owning a house.
Posted by: Ezequiel Brojakowski | November 04, 2011 at 04:03 PM
You got it right! "Father Knows Best" and "I Love Lucy" are just two of the awesome TV shows in America. Years after their debut, they are still watched by millions of Americans yearly. Each and every member of the family has a colorful story to tell!
Posted by: Selena Manchester | October 31, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Nowadays most of the people like single-family home,
but with a huge family their will be full of love and fun too.
Posted by: miami beach apartments | October 14, 2011 at 03:32 AM