Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
In the USA, we vary wildly on this, as we do in most every regard!
A friend and I noted once that in NYC, if you found a restaurant hidden in rundown block, with a dilapidated looking store front, you had chance of finding a real hidden gem and great food.
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That is so true! I can't tell you how many times I've looked for somewhere to eat and purposely looked for a dive because I just knew that they were trying to keep their most excellent food a secret! The same is true of Philly. I remember one of the first times I was there on my own, I was probably 18 y/o. As I was driving down South St. I saw a rib place that looked like a hole in the wall in the less desirable part of town and just knew that the food was great. It was. There were times that I'd get a craving for ribs, drive 1:20 minutes to Philly, get my ribs, then drive home.
They were THAT good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by elizilla
I was in Croatia in 2006, and I had a hard time figuring out what was considered a sign of relative wealth, what was ostentatious, etc. I did see this attitude of concealing wealth, mainly in the way that the outsides of the buildings often did not match the insides - people let the outsides of their homes go to ruin, yet they would be pretty nice inside. In the USA, people fix up the exterior first and pretend the inside is nicer than it really is - and we help them by not pressing to come in. I guess we are more ostentatious.  |
I think when it comes to homes it falls more along the lines of having good manners or being a good neighbor. I don't care what my neighbors do to the inside of their homes, but when they let the outside go to pot, I consider it rude and inconsiderate to their neighbors and neighborhood. I have a neighbor around the corner that has a junk yard for a front yard. He has a pool in the back yard w/ no water in it. Meanwhile, his next door neighbor has a beautifully landscaped tropical paradise of a front yard. Every time I drive buy their houses, the dichotomy feels unreal. We have our worst lawn sitting next to our best lawn. I'm so grateful for my neighbors across the street, because their house is my front view. They make it a pleasure for me to sit in my living room and look outside of my window. Coincidently, we use the same landscaper, and I can always tell which houses in the neighborhood, uses this landscaper as well.