Beautiful Morning Drive

[leorah]

Originally Posted by lrfox

You're right. In fact, to many people in S.E. Mass, Boston is just as foreign as Seattle. They avoid it like the plague. I grew up there, but it still shocked me when friends would call a 40 minute drive from Assonet, MA to Newport RI a, "road trip." (no lie).

Uh oh, we may be talking about the same people! I lived in Assonet for 14 years in the 70's/80's, and I worked in Lakeville.

[brightdoglover]

Yes, there are lovely areas outside of most cities. But you aren't likely to just happen through them on the way home from work. From Cherry Hill (NJ), northwest Philly suburbs would be a day trip. The suburban sprawl I'm talking about was across the street and marching east to and through the Pine Barrens every day.
I used to ride a friend's horse about a mile from my subdivision. That area started out as "Willowdale" and morphed into something like "Willowdale-on-Kresson" or some such. Any older houses or farmhouses were torn down. I believe the 300-year-old Quaker cemetary off Rt. 70 became "Applewood Hill" or some such. Architecturally boring, historically frozen in the present and utterly inorganic in its growth.