Outside the Home

Cities visited by tourists, notably New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and Washington, have downtown areas and some other sections with the mixture of culture and entertainment facilities usual in European cities, but most others are less well equipped for the enjoyment of city life. There is no tradition of cafes with tables on the sidewalks (the word “pavement” is used in America for the part of the street used by motor traffic). Bars and saloons are in general too unattractive to compete with people’s homes as social centres. There are plenty of agreeable restaurants where the food is good and reasonably priced. Along with the ethnic restaurants and fast-food places there is a wide variety of choice – but it is possible to find the same choice outside the inner cities, in suburbs and beside main roads. City parks and riverside walks are now popular with joggers and cyclists conscious of the need for exercise. City governments are working hard to attract people to their downtown areas, but they have a difficult task.

The movies have held their audiences, particularly among the younger generation. The growth of television cut the movie audiences quickly until the 1960s, but since then attendances have fallen less than in other countries with similar living standards, from seven visits per year per person to a little less than five. People who like sitting in their cars may choose the drive-in movies, where they can have the baby sleeping on the back seat, so that they do not need to call upon a baby-sitter. Movies, discos, bowling alleys and other indoor entertainments are not much concentrated in the big city centres, but are scattered around the residential areas. It is only the theatres, concert halls and museums that keep alive some semblance of city culture.

The arts are sponsored more by business than by government, but other aspects of the quality of life are promoted by innumerable improvement societies and other pressure groups, not only in cities but in suburbs and small towns too. Group activity in support of causes is more developed in America than in any other country: against pollution, noise, ugliness; in support of action to make the environment more pleasing, more humane. Promotion of such causes demands group activity, and enthusiasm in such groups absorbs the time and energy of members, among whom women are prominent. Leadership is widely diffused, and an active member of a church, a rotary club, a parent-teachers’ association or the League of Women Voters has a social role which gives significance to his or her life and place in the community.

All this social effort has contributed to a recent development which is making urban life more cultivated than it used to be. Apart from New York and a few other big cities, most towns were for a long time weak in music, theatre and the arts. By now the rest of the United States has gone so far in material development that it is no longer satisfied with being a cultural desert. Amateur orchestras and dramatic groups have flourished, taking their place among the manifold social activities – but these have also developed taste and talent. And more and more communities have developed music and the theatre in a more serious way. Where these things have not been developed commercially for profit, local organisations have filled the gap; and as an increasing public has responded, so the theatre, less restrained by censorship, has become more lively and broadened its contribution to the discussion of social problems.

Sport

America has developed some spectator sports of its own which are little practised elsewhere, in particular American football and baseball. Football is derived from the British game of rugby, which has been adopted in other English-speaking countries but only in a few parts of Europe. The American form requires very sophisticated equipment and considerable organisation. It is a game which cannot easily be adapted to a patch of empty ground as traditional football can. It is played at schools, but by its nature it tends to attract a rather restricted group of boys, and is normally played by those who hope to become serious players. Apart from the university teams there are many professional football teams, and they play in large stadiums on Saturday afternoons, often before large crowds. The game is played with an oval ball; players may carry it and tackle each other (so that one player may throw another down as part of the game). The rules are complicated, and the game is inherently dangerous, but in order to avoid injuries the most elaborate protective clothing has been developed. With dramatic protection for his head, shoulders and chest, and a visor over his face, a player when fully equipped looks like a ferocious and malevolent visitor from another planet. The average football player looks formidable enough in private life, with his close-cropped hair and well-trained toughness, but a team look frightening indeed.

A first class football game is played in the midst of an immense ritual. Half an hour before the game begins, bands with majorettes begin marching and playing music on the field, and their routines make the preparations in many ways more interesting than the game itself. Supporters are urged to cheer by cheer-leaders, who are normally girls wearing a distinctive uniform. Thus the footfall game is not merely an entertainment for the spectators but a pageant, using many of the devices which are also employed in political rallies.

Association football, as played over all the rest of the world, has been neglected and has only recently appeared as a sport arousing much attention. But the isolation imposed on American sports by its distinctive type of football, not played seriously elsewhere, is likely to encourage the development of ordinary football so that participation with other countries can be extended.

As a summer game the Americans have adapted the English cricket to their own tastes in the form of baseball. This is a much cruder and simpler game than cricket as played in England, and resembles the game called rounders often played elsewhere by children. Here too protective clothing is part of the performance, though except for the catcher it seems scarcely as necessary as for the football players. Professional baseball teams have enthusiastic followings, and important baseball games arouse great interest, being followed on television all across the nation. This too is a large scale commercial enterprise, bringing huge financial rewards to players and management alike. Among participant sports, golf has a special place, not only for the game itself but also for its role in the worlds of business and politics. For success in these fields it is not necessary to play, think and talk about golf, but it can be very helpful. Rather similar cults surround the activities of fishing and the shooting of birds and animals (called “hunting”). Though these sports are predominantly male, they are not entirely so, and they are spread widely throughout the socio-economic classes.

Concern for health has stimulated not only jogging, but even walking, among people who at one time seemed in danger of losing the use of their legs. There are good municipal facilities for tennis and other participant sports, as well as swimming. But many municipal swimming pools are covered, and in the hot summers it is not easy to find a place to swim outside except for those who have pools in their own home backyards. But even people able to afford a private pool many be deterred by the labour involved in maintenance, and by fear lest trespassing children should fall in. There are pools, as well as facilities for tennis, squash, golf, etc in private clubs, but the fees for membership are very high. Even by coasts and lake shores, swimming is restricted. Most of the adjoining land is privately owned, though there are sections formally arranged as public beaches and others in commercial “resorts”, which if beside water may be more concerned with people who want to fish or use boats than with swimmers. Swimming in public places is discouraged, or even forbidden, if there are no lifeguards on duty.

There is almost no informal access to the countryside of the kind familiar in most of northern Europe. There is no network of ancient footpaths made by medieval peasants, no patches of open common land, no easily accessible open river banks. For practical purposes there are no detailed maps through which such amenities could be discovered if they existed.

Outside the built-up areas, hundreds of attractive places have been formally designated, by state or county authority, for public access and resort – some as “state parks” or “county parks”, big or small. There is often an entrance gate, with a barrier which may be closed at night. Some parks charge a few dollars for each car coming in. Someone who has put in a little beer to drink with the family picnic may feel worried if the “do/don’t” notices say “no alcohol”.

As well as picnic tables, the bigger parks have visitor-centres with guidebooks, postcards, crude maps of the area, information on the history, geology and wildlife, maybe a room with a video show. Energetic visitors may go for long walks on well-planned footpaths (“trails”) to the best viewpoints – though the vast majority of visitors stay near their cars. The existence of these places compensates a little for the lack of informal countryside.

On a grander scale, America was a pioneer in setting up “National Parks”, beginning with Yellowstone in l872. By now this and a dozen other scenic “parks” or “recreation areas” together cover a small fragment of the whole area of the Rocky and other western mountain ranges, but they probably include the best scenery, and the most accessible mountains for the serious climbers.

Yosemite National Park and two others are within four or eight hundred kilometres of the big Californian cities, but the rest are too remote for a short visit. Like the commercial winter-sport resorts outside the parks they are best reached by rented car in a half-day’s journey from Denver, Salt Lake City or Las Vegas airport.