"Creeping sameness"

I first heard those words, that phrase, in college, and my prof attributed them to Kinky Friedman. I attempted a little fact-checking and can't track 'em down, but the phrase has stayed with me for 15 years. "Creeping sameness." Friedman was describing sprawl/franchise-mania/viral suburbia/homogenization of the American landscape.

Or I think he was, since I'm not sure if he penned the phrase or not.

There is a "creeping sameness" in our communities. We see the same combo of FedEx, Walgreen's, Shell, etc. etc. At the airport, I saw it manifest too, and was actually a tad annoyed when there wasn't a Hudson News right next to our gate (since the shop pattern was broken AND I wanted to buy some gum). Don't get me wrong - I love convenience as much as the next person! I like to have ready access to food, fuel and fun, but I mourn the loss of Place Personality. I am proud to be a Minnesotan and glad my children are Texans. I cherish the things that make these places different from other places. Our states have personalities.

I suppose the new word for personality is brand. Texas has a brand. Minnesota too, to a lesser and colder extent.

The replacement of local or Mom & Pop businesses with the proven moneymakers/corporate business planned/heavily logo-ed CVSes and Texacos (or is it ChevronTexaco?) and Chik-fil-A type establishments is, frankly, sad. Coexistence is fine, but replacement is not. Something has been lost. (I don't mean to impugn those particular businesses either, as I have frequented all of them in the past four weeks.) I wish that Happy Medium were a state that we could maintain, a state that provided convenience without destruction. I recognize the paradox. I am the first one to complain (to myself) about ugly shop facades and poorly zoned neighborhoods in my community. "We should get a developer in here," I mutter. What I mean is, a responsible developer with some sense of the past and some restraint.

The Renfroes and I call this "creeping sameness" phenomenon McDisMart, as in "We had a McDisMart Christmas." (Again, I don't know if they came up with that - probably! - or if I helped, or if Kinky Friedman said it first.) Again, I say that as someone who takes her kids to McDonald's, owns dozens of Disney movies, and on occasion (guiltily) shops at Walmart. And someone who chides herself for oversimplifying Walmart's role in our economy. (Here is Robert Reich's 2005 column on the topic, and I recognize myself as the kind of hypocrite who bemoans the shuttering of local bookshops but purchases stuff from amazon.com.)

Daniel Gilbert offers commentary on the changing shape of nostalgia in our brave new world. He says that perhaps we've reached the end of nostalgia. I think this is interesting reading for the new year.

This couple is taking it to the other extreme. They're living in a yurt in Alaska. Wow. I had the thought that their story is like Into the Wild but with relationship stability. This is how Alexander Supertramp might have turned out if he'd met the right girl in college. Definitely not the life for me. I enjoy being in the wilderness, but would desperately miss the hustle and bustle of a city. I could not survive with only an outhouse and 5 gallon bucket in which to wash dishes. They let the dogs lick the plates first, then clean them with boiling water.

I would also find it difficult to live in a place where one had to fly or ferry to the grocery store. What? No CVS on the corner? But I admire them for being so in sync, for living simply, and for keeping alive a past way of life that's almost been bulldozed by "creeping sameness."