Plein Air is a familiar suburban scene, which we have seen in countless movies, advertisements and TV programs for more than half a century. However, although the pickets remained unchanged, our attitude towards them changed. In this beautiful life, frank capra staged the most optimistic scene in postwar hymns in front of the picket fence, and George Bailey courted Mary Hatch. Forty years later, david lynch opened his disturbing blue velvet 1986, which contained a flat-bottomed sinister spike and overripe flowers. Halfway through the premiere of 20 13 "American", the camera switched to the front yard where spies Elizabeth and Philip Jennings set off by the white picket line. "White picket fence is short for America," said John Mott, the production designer of the first two seasons of the play. "The meaning of' Americans' lies in living a fraudulent life. These people are not Americans, but Russian agents, but they must be integrated into the American background.
Before they crossed the Atlantic, the picket had a completely different meaning. In old Europe, Piquet's picket, or "point stick or board" in French, was military equipment, and the log was polished to protect archers from cavalry. The colonists of the New World need to demarcate their land and perhaps defend it. They use rough picket lines and bare or white fences. In the19th century, mass production made fence parts cheaper and more beautiful, and picket fences were popular from New England to key west.
But not everyone likes fences. In 184 1, andrew jackson Downing, a pioneer in landscape design, condemned them as "abominations in fresh land, and no one with taste can be convicted." Downing lost this round; As the country expanded to the west, fencing also lost it. The scholar Fred E.H. Schroeder wrote in his book front yard America that at the end of 19, the developers of the new "suburb" briefly made the borderless front yard fashionable. However, fenced courtyards cannot be compared with the colonial revival design movement around 1876, which supported the picket fence. The humble totem of middle-class prosperity still exists in the 1930s, when many American families could not paint the fence, let alone the whole house.
In colonial times, the mixture of lime and water protected the stumps and gave the fence a traditional white color. (Getty Images) "KDSP" accused the Cold War of what it did on the fence. Whether seeking a sense of security, embracing new technology or avoiding boring painting work, many suburban people in the 1950s linked their fate. However, the symbolic significance of the white picket fence is inevitable, and it has entered popular culture as a visual shorthand for a better life. A kind and gentle America staged a TV fantasy drama behind the picket, such as "Father knows best" and "Give it to the Beaver"-an imaginary all-white world, and the worst thing may happen when Eddie haskell makes fun of the Beaver.
Real fences became popular again in the 1980s, and were revived by new urbanism developers, trying to recreate the suburbs that were suitable for walking in the early days. Geoff hardwick, a suburban scholar, thinks that the modern picket fence is the echo of the echo, and the persistence of this expression makes him feel funny. He said: "Everything finally looks like a suburb that didn't exist 70 or 80 years ago. Nowadays, picket fences are sometimes authorized by the owners' association, which is an organization that makes benign historical sites a reality that violates their essence. "You can see through it; You can skip it if you want, "said McCool, the developer of the fence. "If you stand in the yard and someone stops on the sidewalk, you can have a chat." As for the "good old days" that people often say, please remember: whether you are talking about the 1980s or 1990s of 19, those days are no less than now. When the American middle class occupied the crumbling land with the fence as a symbol,
The white picket fence is as simple as that-a few slats are stuck on the railing, and one or two gates are enough to cause endless interpretation. But maybe we should retire pickets and let them do what they do best: keep children and dogs where they belong and encourage neighborhood interaction. Enough deconstruction. Let the fence become a fence.
Anna Diamond and Matthew Brown will be broadcast on America's obsession with territorial stories.
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April issue