You’re on a bike ride and as you approach your driveway, you reach for the garage door opener that, surely, is clipped to the rim of your helmet…?
You know there are NO shortcuts through subdivisions.
You never worry that you won’t find a parking place.
Your most common pastime seems to be buying more stuff. Or mowing the yard.
You can tell the difference between dozens of homes that others might think look all the same.
You think of corn and soybean fields as “wide open spaces.”
You love visiting the city, although things there just seem… crowded. And dirty. And noisy.
You know your way around the city AND the suburbs.
You know all the metro highway names and how and where they interconnect.
You know the difference between Forest Park, Park Forest, Lake Forest, River Forest, Glenview, Glen Ellyn, Glenwood, and Glencoe.
Evanston: you can’t get there from here.
You know there’s poverty in your suburb, even if city people seem to think everyone out here is rich.
You’ve perfected your “Hi neighbor!” wave, even if you can’t quite remember your neighbor’s name.
The intricate geography of all your local strip malls are as familiar to you as the back of your hand.
And yet, you’re always discovering that some store, big box, or restaurant exists in your general neighborhood that you hadn’t even realized was there, even though you’ve driven past it a hundred times.
You know big snow storms means everyone comes out to talk and help each other.
You wish that one neighbor would just finish that yard project.
You know that there as as many weird, disturbed people in the suburbs as in the city.
