Guterson's Suburbs

The primary difference between the suburbs described in the story and where I grew up is huge--I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Owensville, Ohio. Unlike the layout which Guterson describes to be "designed, organized, and executed by a corporation," everything that was done in the town that I lived was done in order to keep food on the table for your own families, and to provide for each other. The kids don't sit inside and watch tv, they help with the chores that come with trying to survive off your land. For entertainment, we would circle up and tell stories or play in the woods. We did not have rapists lurking amongst us, and for that reason everyone was allowed to roam freely around the town. People didn't steal from each other because everyone was poor-no one had anything nicer than anyone else that someone would like to have. There were no WalMarts or McDonalds, we had an IGA (independant grocers association), a Gramma's Pizza, and a movie rental store ran out of someone's living room. There were no major developers when we lived there, and due to that there was a serious lack of jobs. Therefore, it was unheard of for someone to play tennis or golf in the afternoons. Everyone got along pretty well for the most part, and as far as I know the only change to Owensville is that we got a BP/Subway across from the courthouse to compete with the Sunoco gas station right on the edge of town.


Either we had a good community of good people, or we had a community that was great at keeping secrets.