Correspondents' Correspondence Greek Tragedy
ROBERTS, COKIE
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Greek Tragedy Athens-Recently I went to London on a TV...
...No one, alas...
...are pulling back from the materialism of the industrial society and trying to clean up its unattractive physical and spiritual by-products, the Greeks are rushing helter-skelter into it...
...Greece now makes dishwasher detergent, because more Greeks have dishwashers...
...After talking to several of these expatriates, I noticed a few recurring themes that underlined my own observations as a resident of Greece...
...The young city people, meanwhile, no longer want to share a small apartment with their parents...
...Yet the sad thing is that nobody learns from our mistakes...
...Gradually the siesta goes, the daily tempo speeds up and the outdoor life of the community decreases...
...The length of a car, the size of a steak in a restaurant, the endless variety of soap powders in the supermarket, all strike the returning traveler...
...On my first trip home after nine months in Greece I remember wondering why everyone was complaining about the economy...
...But then all those individual packages have to be disposed of somewhere, as do the plastic bags they come in...
...The young watch and come to the cities...
...Right now the cost is high, both for the machine itself and the electricity it uses...
...In the heat of the summer, sitting in an outdoor movie, the ad for an air conditioner looks good...
...While many in the U.S...
...This summer, though, many more offices and hotels are air-conditioned than last...
...And who will cry, "Stop...
...A greater selection of frozen and canned foods can be found in the groceries along with cut and packaged meat, because more women are working out of the home and spending less time in the kitchen...
...Who can blame them...
...We know we are wasteful, we worry about crime in the cities, we chafe about life whizzing by too fast to enjoy it...
...the majority said, "Slowing down the pace of life...
...Not the government, which has just unveiled a five-year plan for greater industrial growth...
...Television has spread to the villages...
...They were to be interviewed about the differences between living in England and the United States...
...What most Americans, including me, consider necessities-the washer, the vacuum cleaner, at least one car-are still luxuries elsewhere...
...all answered, "The overabundance of American society...
...To the reverse question, "What do you find hardest to adjust to when you visit home...
...It seemed to me that people had more of everything and paid less for it than we do here...
...Everyone mentioned safety- how they felt free to go out at night or send their children out alone in Europe, but not in the U.S...
...As the young people work to afford the luxuries and the new apartments, what happens to the pace of life...
...Still, the extended family breaks up and old-folks homes open their doors...
...Drilling will therefore begin in the Aegean, where this year increased tanker traffic produced spillages that covered the beaches with tar-plus some of the new cans and no-deposit, no-return bottles...
...And the parents must find something else to occupy their lives...
...Often they leave their parents behind, making it necessary to find someone else to look after their children...
...cities...
...In the year and a half I have been here, I've watched all kinds of new items appear on the market that reflect the change taking place...
...And certainly not an American who already has it all.-Cokie Roberts...
...As production increases, when does the society become wasteful...
...Greek Tragedy Athens-Recently I went to London on a TV assignment to find Americans who had settled there...
...Since I'm one of those women, I'm delighted about the new conveniences...
...Greeks pay $2.50 for a gallon of gasoline and almost $200 for a ton of heating oil, so naturally they want to discover domestic oil supplies...
...None of this is likely to be news...
...In response to the question, "What did you most have to get used to when you moved abroad...
...As communities disperse and move indoors, how long will cities be safe...
...They appeared to be hurting in making the payments on the boat or summer house, rather than missing the basics...
Vol. 58 • September 1975 • No. 19
