Text 2. Leisure and sports in the usa Home

First of all Americans, when they are free concern themselves with their homes and with their activities at home. Most people have an ambition to own their own house in a little piece of ground, and very large numbers of them have achieved that ambition. Houses are not excessively expensive in relation to their space and comfort by European standards, and in relation to income levels they look very reasonable. Two-thirds of all families own the houses in which they live, though many of the owners have borrowed money on the security of their houses and their jobs in order to pay for them.

As the suburbs grow, so the city centres tend to become mainly places for business, and the central areas are losing commerce to the suburbs. In suburban areas, shopping centres consist of a group of perhaps fifty shops around a huge car park; and the main unit of the shopping centre is usually a supermarket which stays open very late, or even all night. The growth of these vast establishments, and the decline of the small independent shops, began earlier than in Europe and proceeded faster. Modern Americans are accustomed to buying all their food in weekly visits to the supermarket, bringing it home in the car and storing it in the deep-freeze.

Once Americans have reached home they are interested in working to improve it and in making it as pleasant as possible. There is a strong incentive to spend much free time at home when the home is well-equipped, comfortable and attractive; for example, the private swimming pool is no longer reserved for the rich. One of the first activities at home is making things, mending things and working on the car. Apart from that there is television, and in most parts there are many programmes to choose from as well as cable TV.

Americans like to invite their friends to their homes, even for Sunday breakfast. Parties for children and for grown-ups are constantly occupying their leisure hours, usually with something to drink. When a new family moves into a suburban house the neighbours will be calling at once to see if they can help in any way. The problem of personal social barriers has been overcome more successfully than in any part of Europe. So although each home may be a unit looking inwards to itself, it is also a unit which is much involved with the activities of the homes round about it. The new suburb recreates the sense of community of the old country village so that a family’s home, instead of being an isolated island, is itself a part of a group of homes. It is possible to turn it into an island, but not many suburbanities want to do that. Most find their homes more satisfying because of their links with the neighbours – and also not too narrow because they still have plenty of contacts outside the neighborhood. Most go to work in another place, so that the suburban home is only a part of their environment.

The constant visits of friends and neighbours encourage people to display their possessions. It is not enough just to have the usual array of machines and gadgets in the house; they must be new ones and the best ones too. The gadgets which increase leisure act at the same time as an encouragement to more work and more earnings, and are sometimes regarded as ends in themselves, not merely as useful tools with which to avoid unpleasant work. The acquisition of the latest dishwashing machine is followed by the air-conditioning system, the swimming-pool, the added sun-room or covered terrace. But a family whose income rises soon looks for a better house, in a better district, with more land, a better view, a bigger and finer swimming pool. They may be attached to the house which is home for the time being but this does not imply that they have roots there. Today’s job, today’s home, today’s friends and neighbourhood: all these are part of a family’s identity. Nothing is regarded as permanent; the American hopes and expects to exchange them all for something better, and finds no difficulty in identifying with the new.