What is your definition of Americana? (grandparent, relocate, community, celebration)
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Small town Midwest suburbia for my childhood. School functions with PTA involvement for fund raisers were common with heavy parental involvement: fish fries, carnivals with cake walks, talent shows. Summer recreation with tether ball, four square, and box hockey. I was a baton twirler and was in parades. Sadie Hawkin Day dances. Friday night foot ball at night with lights.
Small NY village for son’s childhood. PTA turned into the PTO. Functions were the Halloween Happening at school, the merchants let kids paint Halloween scenes on their storefront windows, later they taped paper on the windows to paint. Fourth of July parade with floats and fireworks by the pond, Memorial Day parade, live nativity scene with animals at a local church, village square Christmas tree lighting with Santa arriving on a firetruck with cookies at the volunteer fire station afterward. Menorah lighting a few days later. Saturday afternoon football, no lights.
Small town nearby living in suburbia again near grandkids.. PTO with family night movies, fund raisers with festivals at school. More parades, but now to kick off the season in September (originally to welcome businesses back that closed in the summer), an hour and a half Christmas parade because the weather is warm and Santa is on a float, live nativity with animals but no 15 minute shift changes because of the cold, Christmas boat parade, drum circles on the beach, Friday night football with money for lights again.
Americana to me is people being involved in their communities and schools, making them places you want to live in.
I think this nails it. I grew up in northeast TN, but with a heavy manufacturing presence, it's as much culturally "Rust Belt" as it is Southern.
Many of the things you mentioned still go on today here. In my day to day life, the thing that keeps us from feeling "genuinely American" anymore is the extremely high crime rate in many local communities, and the rampant opioid and meth abuse. I think small town Indiana is basically perfect Americana. We're just too addicted to drugs in my area to feel wholesome anymore.
Sadie Hawkins Day Dances. Bobbing for apples. Happened in cities too, as well as live nativity scenes, Halloween carnivals and square dances. Parents were also “involved”.
This level of divisiveness either until 9-11. And no weapons of mass destruction. I am very liberal. I see hate and fear on both sides. We can’t seem to get anything done because of this. I worked for a Democratic Governor for 2 terms in the mid 70’s. Both parties worked together for the betterment of the state. Not true today.
Child molesters were there. I know. They were not talked about. Children were not always believed. Growing up you didn’t bring up money, politics, and certainly not sex in polite society.
But that wasn’t my point. My point was those of us brought up in larger cities are also part of “Americana.”
I live in Asheville— have found much more acceptance and less hate here than many other places. Have seen no hate at Pack Square only inclusion. We see through different eyes. In the last election I handed out info for local dems. This was alongside republican canvassers. We had positive conversations. No hate.
When you look at things like crime, most places today are safer than they've been in many years. Nationally, crime has been trending downward for many years. There are, of course, places like that are getting worse, but those are generally exceptions.
Our worldviews are based on our own experiences. This is what I see in my day-to-day life. I work in a manufacturing town that is having trouble adjusting to a post-manufacturing economy. Many quality jobs have been lost. Of the jobs that remain, many of those jobs are on the lower end. When I was growing up, it was pretty common to, say, have a dad working in manufacturing and mom as a teacher. Today, it's much more common for one parent to be in a call center and another at Walmart.
On my commute in, there are at least four businesses that were functioning as of five or ten years ago that are all closed. An auto parts store, a burger joint, a small clothing shop, and a pool vendor. I see dilapidated buildings on a daily basis. The main retail drag through town that used to hold a lot of "middle class" retail is chock full of rent to own stores, buy here/pay here car lots, cash for gold, "check cashing" and "bill pay" outfits, pawn shops, liquor stores, vape shops, and payday lenders.
The CVS in the neighborhood I grew up in wasn't robbed for years. Robberies at that pharmacy are now commonplace. Growing up, it was fairly rare for anyone to have a drug problem. I know many people addicted to drugs or in the drug business these days. It's incredibly common. Homeless are starting to "accumulate" in the downtown area and the city green spaces. I never remember this level of homelessness growing up.
I see a culture in decline. Full blown Hillbilly Elegy here. I don't see where we are today as generally positive.
I grew up in a small town which of course by now has grown considerably.
I think a part of Americana is being overlooked. At least in my opinion it is.
It's also about large cities, immigrants moving in and settling in sections of a city. People who worked hard, never had a lot of money, struggled but lived. Clothes lines on pulleys. Kids in the street playing (can't remember the exact word) "stick ball", depending on what section you are living in the distinct smell of ethnic food being cooked. People looking out for others, watching the kids play, neighbors knowing each other. Not living as strangers to one another.
Americana isn't in one section of America. It is country wide.
Very small town Midwest suburbia for my childhood. School functions with PTA involvement for fund raisers were common with heavy parental involvement: fish fries, carnivals with cake walks...
Those school events, yes! And that brings up another bit of Americana: church events featuring food, run by volunteers. Spaghetti feeds, pancake breakfasts, fish fries.
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...Friday night football with money for lights again.
And the Superbowl (with its parties, of course). And an urban one: the neighborhood basketball court, with kids playing a pickup game.
I didn’t intend to make Americana seem like its exclusive to small towns. It’s the only experience I have, and all I know and can speak about. Although I’ve lived in three different regions, the similarities are there along with differences. I want to believe it exists in the same spirit if not activity, anywhere in our country where people get together for community; whether it’s urban, rural or in between.
I think this nails it. I grew up in northeast TN, but with a heavy manufacturing presence, it's as much culturally "Rust Belt" as it is Southern.
Many of the things you mentioned still go on today here. In my day to day life, the thing that keeps us from feeling "genuinely American" anymore is the extremely high crime rate in many local communities, and the rampant opioid and meth abuse. I think small town Indiana is basically perfect Americana. We're just too addicted to drugs in my area to feel wholesome anymore.
While I loved growing up in IN, its meth labs rival the ones in Tennessee. Look at a meth lab map. Our much loved first house on the river in IN was used as a meth lab during the downturn, so sad. Anyplace without neighborhood interaction or oversight can have a meth lab. A homeless couple was living and cooking up a batch of meth near the pond and woods by our library in FL. Pond+alliagator+tweakers had all the makings for disaster, luckily for them they were arrested before they were eaten. Drugs are everywhere and are the answer to income inequality for many.
I think you have an idealized idea of Indiana after living near an affluent suburb of Indianapolis. The innocence of years past is not today. Indiana can be a great place to live, but your are seeing it through your preoccupation of all that is wrong with Tennessee. Perfect anything doesn’t exist.
When I try to come up with a definition of "Americana," I think of customs/activities/objects that are not commonly found outside the United States, and are often ones that trace their beginnings back an earlier time in American history. State and county fairs, rodeos, Fourth of July parades, Thanksgiving dinner, serving corn on the cob at backyard barbecues, trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins on Halloween, road trip vacations... those to me are classic Americana. Basically, I ask myself "Would a person from another country visiting the US for the very first time find this fascinating, or would they say they have the same things back at home"?
LOL. Community "fairs," national holidays, barbecues, etc are all celebrated around the world. Of course the names of the holidays are different, but a foreign visitor would recognize the essential nature of the celebration.
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