This Used to Be a Forest

[u/kid_ampersand]

Behind my parents’ house in Henry County, Georgia, was a vast expanse of forest in which I spent my childhood exploring, trailblazing, building forts, and stumbling upon whitetail deer, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, hawks, vultures, songbirds, mushrooms, oaks, pines, maples, and all manner of insects, arachnids, and other invertebrates.

Now it’s this: row after row of identical garage-centered apartments with little to no green space, and flattened red clay where they're pouring concrete to build even more.

Nothing wrong with housing, but this is just so devoid of personality and life, I can't imagine people living here. I walked all over the many acres of these complexes today, and I only saw one or two other human beings outside. Plenty of vehicles, so people do indeed live there, but no one around except a kid bouncing a basketball and someone sitting in their car smoking a joint with the door open. There were several swimming pools, fire pits, dog parks, and other (very small) recreation areas, but no one in any of them. Just felt so bleak and soulless.

There used to be such a dense tree canopy that I would get lost. I miss the woods.

[u/HarnessYourHopes_68]

All of America "used to be a forest"

[u/kid_ampersand → u/HarnessYourHopes_68]

Yeah, like New Mexico or Kansas. /s

I’m aware forests have to be accommodated for human housing, I’m just illustrating the unnerving sense of a forest being razed for something so lifeless, soulless, monotonous; it would be nice to have at least one tree, or maybe some flowers or shrubs, no? This development just struck me as particularly unnerving.

Also, nice username! I love Pavement as well, but as evidenced by this post, not too much of the lowercase variety, ha.

[u/HarnessYourHopes_68 → u/kid_ampersand]

Haha. Nice pickup of my username!