When the Suburbs Had Soul

My father once went streaking. It was late at night in the summer of 1974. After a boisterous and well-lubricated dinner party, he announced that he wanted to try what the kids on TV were all doing â?? he was going to streak. Dad then stripped down to everything but his army boots and dashed down our street, a cul-de-sac in suburban Maryland.

I was thinking about this recently when I stayed in my mother's old house in Maryland after she, 84, moved into a semi-assisted living apartment complex. Sitting in her empty house before it was sold, I thought: the suburbs once had character. They once had soul. Funny things happened in them. Now they really are as bland as their critics claim.