Class Indicators
Nov. 15th, 2012 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maladroit posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deconstructing_classHi class-mates! (did you see what I did there?) I have thoughts about class this morning.
During a discussion some few years back a faculty member/administrator shared a comment the former VP made about hydrangeas in her yard being a class marker. I'm not familiar enough with US class markers to know what my yard says about me - boxwood, azaleas, dogwood trees, camellias and some low-growing cedar bush are all planted in my front yard. Does my shrubbery indicate middle class while my lack of mowing and pruining indicates something else?
I also had a conversation with my boss about leaving his jacket at home this morning, and wondered how you forget your jacket when you walk out of the house when its 50something degrees outside, and then I remembered that he has a two car garage (that isn't filled with tools, old paint and boxes of who knows what). Is that a (middle?) class indicator too?
During a discussion some few years back a faculty member/administrator shared a comment the former VP made about hydrangeas in her yard being a class marker. I'm not familiar enough with US class markers to know what my yard says about me - boxwood, azaleas, dogwood trees, camellias and some low-growing cedar bush are all planted in my front yard. Does my shrubbery indicate middle class while my lack of mowing and pruining indicates something else?
I also had a conversation with my boss about leaving his jacket at home this morning, and wondered how you forget your jacket when you walk out of the house when its 50something degrees outside, and then I remembered that he has a two car garage (that isn't filled with tools, old paint and boxes of who knows what). Is that a (middle?) class indicator too?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-19 06:03 pm (UTC)Largely through neglect (two generations of apartment dwellers), we managed to kill the roses, the azaleas, the crabapple tree (which wasn't all that healthy anyway), the bleeding hearts, the honeysuckle, the lilac bushes, and a couple of the trees. The front shrubbery is compact, but the side hedges are a touch ratty. Mom hated the tigerlilies, and they eventually gave up. The pachysandra choked out the lilies of the valley. An attempt was made about ten years ago to replace the rose bush, but it has since died. The lilac bushes were replanted at a sunnier location and are both flowering and blocking the door.
The hydrangeas have survived nearly fifty years of straightforward indifferent treatment. They might count as the original owners' class marker. Current state of lawns just means that there's a lawn maintenance service--which suggests middle class marker more than the hydrangeas.
Yeah, if he could get into his car from the house without having to go outside (extra class points if your office has a garage in the building).
Long-winded. Sorry. Also 3 months late.