Watching the feeding frenzy at various bird feeding devices in our backyard and the neighbors' just now, it occurred to me: Suburban America is made up of houses which were built and/or landscaped by people who grew up on a farm somewhere chasing feathered rats out of the fields and breaking their backs keeping non-cash crops from growing there.
And got drafted, came back, got out, and got a job in The City.
And got a house where bird feeders, bird houses, and bird baths were emplaced liberally (so to speak), and all manner of ornamental, non-edible plants were carefully grown.
Was that a new gentility, or an act of rebellion?
(Mrs. Drang's father grew up on a farm in Kansas, mine on a farm in Michigan. I may be generalizing, but I figure that at least half of all households in America are no more than two generations from working a farm somewhere...)
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