The Country and The City

'Is it anything more than a well-known habit of using the past, the "good old days," as a stick to beat the present? [I Want to be a Cowgirl] It is clearly something of that, but there are still difficulties. The apparent resting places [open range, children's books], the successive Old Englands [The Wild West] to which we are confidently referred but which then start to move and recede, have some actual significance, when they are looked at in their own terms [Giddy Up, Cowgirl!]. Of course we notice their location in the childhoods of their authors, and this must be relevant [Susan Lowell]. Nostalgia, it can be said, is universal and persistent; only other men's nostalgias offend. A memory of childhood can be said persuasively, to have some permanent significance[Cindy Ellen, Little Red Cowboy Hat]. But again, what seemed a single escalator, a perpetual recession into history, turns out, on reflection, to be a more complicated movement: Old England [Old West], settlement [cattle drives], the rural virtues [gender roles]--all these, in fact, mean different things at different times, and quite different values are being brought to question [gender, identity, power, imagination].'

-- Raymond Williams, The Country and the City
(1975, 21-2; notes mine)

Urban Homesteader

Somewhere in my longing for Americana, I have this romantic notion of what it would be like to live in the South, proper woman of the house looking over her Southern home, the sweltering air and crickets at sunset.

To be honest, I have no idea where this comes from. I don't even think it's from the movies. I've never been to the South and I'm almost positive that if I actually lived there at any time over the last century I would have real trouble, one way or another. Plus, I don't think it's just "the South" that's in my head, more of a meshing with images and music of the Appalachian mountains and my upbringing in Northern California.

While a past life full of hoop skirts and sweet tea could be the answer, it occured to me today that maybe it's related to a larger movement I didn't even know existed by name. Again, my trusty, wise friend VeggieKnitter got me thinking when she told the story of someone being intrigued by her being an Urban Homesteader. Something clicked: is this what all my cooking, baking, gardening, crafting, sustainability, organic produce, composting-daily stuff is about?

OK, so maybe urban homesteading--working towards self-sufficiency in the "heart of the city"--doesn't really have anything to do with my fantasies about the South, but with the way my brain works, I still think there could be a connection. Even if it's scallop edging with polka dots, glass jars, jam, and fresh mint from the garden.

Dessert of Créme Brulée with Local Raspberry Jam
+ Zubrówka Vodka & Organic Raspberry Apple Juice

Doesn't something about it just make you start dreaming?