Home on the Road - January 15, 2012

It was warmer but blustery this morning, when we went out for a quick morning walk. The snow had settled into place, but by the time we went to the dog park about 2 pm, it was early spring again, in the mid-30s, and almost all the snow had melted in the dog park. The wind died down by mid-day as well. Another day of this and the bulk of the already pretty modest snowfall will be gone.

I don't live in my car, but I think sometimes about long car trips. We're going out east for spring break, and as I looked at airfares, I once again realized that for three of us, driving was getting to be more and more an economical consideration, the main mitigating factors against being the time factor (do I really want to spend that much time off work just driving) and the where-do-we-sleep-when-we're-on-the-road factor. In the end, we found fabulous fares to DC, so we'll visit a friend there for a couple days on the way to visit my folks in New Jersey.

Since overnight rail cars came into common usage, it's become easier to think of vehicles as little extensions of private space. No, wait, go back further, to the cabins of sailing ships. Most of the sailors (and passengers) until recently shared common quarters for their voyages. But then the captain, and later better-off passengers, got their own private quarters. I'd be curious to know the fittings of sleeper cars in railroads and the cabins of ocean liners played off against each other in the 19th century. That was the era where private-quarters travel really emerged into its own. Before then, people would travel in carriages or boats with relatively public quarters (Of course there were closed carriages, but these were privately maintained, while most hired coaches were shared by paying passengers).

Private space and public space in vehicles was a kind of constant negotiation, and it still is. On one end, you have gypsy caravans and modern motor homes: actual little houses on wheels. On the other, you have carts and most modern cars, which are open to the world to see inside.

I've long loved the video to REM's "Everybody Hurts". Think about private space and public space as you look at it again. It's lovely in yet another aspect.

When we look at how people live in their cars when they become homeless, one of the challenges they face is that the vehicles aren't designed for privacy, however much we may want them to be private space. Being able to close your windows, being able to visually keep the outside out, is crucial.