I couldn't help thinking of the song Little Boxes (see below) when I looked up the hill from Tamarama Beach.But, here, very expensive ticky-tacky boxes!
Tamarama is often nick-named "Glamarama" or "Glamourama", based on its status as an expensive suburb, and a beach where the "beautiful people" come to be seen. Tamarama may be a corruption of an Aboriginal name, Gamma Gamma, which is how it appeared on European military and naval maps of the 1860s.
Left: a nod to the more traditional aspects of the suburb in the Federation style bus stop. And can you see the family on the balcony of their ultra-modern house at the right?
Little Boxes From Wikipedia:
Little Boxes is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962 that lampoons the development of suburbia and what many consider its bourgeois conformist values. It is best known through Pete Seeger's performance of the song. Click here to hear Pete Seeger singing the song). And here it is used as a theme in the TV series, Weeds.
Little Boxes refers to the areas of Daly City, California built in the post-war era by Henry Doelger, particularly the neighborhood of Westlake. Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Malvina Reynolds, explains:
"My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Honda where she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn’t find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered.”
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
Little Boxes refers to the areas of Daly City, California built in the post-war era by Henry Doelger, particularly the neighborhood of Westlake. Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Malvina Reynolds, explains:
"My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Honda where she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn’t find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered.”
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
that is very, very cool. I enjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteI too very much enjoyed this post. It had a profound effect on me as my son is at University and everyone is telling him to go into business and be like everyone else. I shall pass this on to him.
ReplyDeleteThey do look as if they are made of ticky-tacky but I bet the view is stunning...and probably inside they are lovely. Just like a Mediterranean setting really - hillsides - but these are different sorts of houses.
ReplyDeleteThem limp are turned to the sun
ReplyDeleteWe have a song "littles boxes" by greame Allwright
in english by pete Seeger
This looks very much like southern California facing the beach. I remember the "little boxes" song.
ReplyDeleteLovely little boxes
ReplyDeleteIndeed, not Rio"favelas"!
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard that song for years, and it was old then. You will have be hummming that now. Cute and Tacky.
ReplyDeleteThere's a trend here; we have little boxes like those popping up along our coast - must be a photo there for the future.
ReplyDeleteSo cute! I love that song too - haven't thought about it in a while.
ReplyDeleteNow you've got me singing it too.
ReplyDeleteI still remember when the song came out, in Russian class at the uni in Chicago our teacher starting singing it in her thick Russian accent, as a statement about "Amerika" I think.
But I love to walk along Tamarama beach. Next month I'll be there again!
Thanks for all your lovely and interesting posts.
Perfect post, and so funny to see a song about my old home turf turn up to illustrate something around the globe in Sydney. Well, the folk song genre's claim to fame is expressing universal truths, I guess. As an 18 year old driving through SF lost with my best friend we came upon the very neighborhood Malvina wrote about and without knowing the song's background at the time, we both started singing the song aloud as we drove along, laughing as we did so.
ReplyDelete-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
I've always loved this song. I thought the way they used it in Weeds was brilliant too with different people singing it in each episode. Nice photos to go with it!
ReplyDelete