Neighborhoods Are Different (2nd Ed, 1987)

[Music] a neighborhood is a place where people live and play where they work and shop and go to school neighborhoods can be in different kinds of places from large cities to suburbs to small towns in quiet Countryside can you tell us about your neighborhood Maria can you tell us about where you live sure I live in a big city with my mom dad doesn't live with us anymore my mom and I have an apartment it's time for us to leave now she goes to work and I go to school want to come Mr Gunther is our next door neighbor we're friends we help each other sometimes Bye Mom I'm lucky cuz one of my best friends ever lives in the same building as me Sarah and I usually walk to school together most of the buildings in our neighborhood are Apartments each building has people from different families living in we have stores in the neighborhood that we depend on for many things most stores near us are small and they're not open yet because it's so early sometimes I buy food here many people go to work at this time of day by bus or car or even on foot it's rush hour now the city streets are crowded so you have to be careful that's my dad he's going to work now too his home is an inm completely different kind of neighborhood with more houses than apartments and not many stores nearby he walks to the station and then he takes a train to his job he works in a factory making parts for Farm Machinery I don't know if you could say the factory is in a neighborhood exactly there are no homes in that area it's interesting but it's not a great place for kids now school is a good place for children especially when you get there on time our school is very large over 800 students from kindergarten to sixth grade after school and on weekends we can play I like living in the city neighborhood sometimes it's crowded but I don't mind I'm close to my friends and stores and school it can be exciting and fun here's a boy who lives in another kind of place Keith can you tell us about your neighborhood my neighborhood is part of a suburb suburbs are communities close to a city almost every family here has its own house with a yard of trees bushes and grass lots of grass I'm almost an expert on the subject of grass right now I like having a yard it's a tough job taking care of it but it's a job that has to be done my dad helps we moved to this neighborhood a few years ago we learned to be away from the crowds and heavy traffic of the city this neighborhood is quiet except for my sisters and me but we also wanted to be close to the city because my dad works there he leaves to work very early in the morning his office is far away in the center of the city many adults who live in the suburbs actually work in the city so so they drive or take a train dad must drive during rush hour when the streets are jam packed with cars you know what one time Lucille and Laticia and I had a day off from school so Mom took a day off from her job and we all drove down to where dad works we got to see his office which is high up in his Skyscraper the center of the city is full of big buildings you can really see the city well from dad's office window some people live here right in the middle of all these buildings I wonder where they play or go to school going to school is easy for me unless the weather is bad I usually ride my bike with my friend Greg we like to ride bikes so we can explore after school that's the town hospital my mom works there many people depend on her doctors nurses people in our neighborhood even though the hospital isn't very far from our house my mom usually gets a ride to work with some other people because there is no bus another place we drive to is the shopping center we do most of our shopping there from groceries to toys my sisters and I like to go to the mall because many different stores are close together there with no cars around to worry about I like my neighborhood in the suburbs we're not tooo far from the city but we also have some quiet areas with yards and grass and good places to play now let's go out in the country and find someone to tell us about that [Music] neighborhood my name's Steve I'm Tanya we live on a farm with our mom and dad maybe compared to the city this doesn't look like a neighborhood things are more spread out in the country our nearest neighbor lives about a quarter of a mile away from us but still we do call them our neighbors most people around here are farmers dad says everyone in and our family is a farmer because we all have our chores Steve and I help with the animals but to tell you the truth our parents do most of the work yeah mom takes care of the family and some Farm business and she Waters the plants around the house Dad does most of the work in the fields and there's a lot of that work and he takes care of the machines and other things he depends on all of us and of course we depend on him the people in our neighborhood all depend on each other like when Mr Luke down the road heard his arm we went over there to help him lay pipe he helps us when we need it one thing he can't help us with is going to school we ride the bus like most of the children who go to our school we're lucky because we're one of the last stops the driver makes in the morning other kids have to get up very early and ride the bus for a long time only the kids from town are close enough to walk like most Farmers we drive into town to do our shopping we have shops here you can't find in a city feed stores and places to get your tractor fixed we may not have as many stores as people in large cities have but we can find what we need Mom likes to go into town because she usually runs into friends and catches up on any news I love living in the country me too it's fun to walk around we see all sorts of things we get to see the plant grow and make vegetables and fruits when a crop is ready we pick it we hire people to help then we sell the crop it goes in trucks to many different places sometimes I look at a strawberry that we grew and I wonder who's going to eat that where do they live maybe it'll be someone far away in a completely different neighborhood maybe it will be Keith in the suburb which is between the city and the country or maybe it will be Maria who lives in the big city or maybe just maybe it will be you can you tell us about your neighborhood [Music] la [Music] oh [Music]