>
>
> shag wrote:
>
>> i would add about the home v house thing, which is something i noticed
>> in
>> the way people would talk about it: home is reserved for something you
>> live in, where you want to enjoy yourself doing the things *you* like to
>> do without worrying about neighbors who don't like your bird feeder.
>>
>> a house, though, is the term used by folks who are talking about it as
>> an
>> investment.
>
> You are in Eddie Guest territory: "It takes a heap o' livin' to make a
> house a home." Dorothy Parker wrote, "I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test
> / Thkan read a poem by Eddie Guest." But they named a Detroit junior
> high school after him.
>
> Carrol
>
not sure what you mean but what i'm describing are the results of close
analysis of the way people in my research talked.
when potential home buyers and when the people leading (real estate agents, banking staff, trainers at the low income home buying sesssions) them through the process discussed it they would use the word home the way I described. When an agent was trying to sell a property, they would always use the language of "home". This was always funny because they would pitch the home in terms of a place where someone could be their unique snowflake selves. it's yours. it belongs to you. you can do whatever you want and not worry about a landlord.
but! when talking to low income buyers, educating them about how to treat their investment, the word was 'home', but 'house.' They would go on to talk about a house as an investment, how it was important to keep it up, take care of it, so your property value wouldn't go down. I remember one guy leading the training session, a retired banker: big, imposing, a thick man of white hair. To me, he looked like a plantation owner talking to a room full of black folks.
he was telling them that anyone could save money, even if they earned a dollar an hour. *rolls eyes* He went on to educate all of us on the necessity of keeping your house value up by not building chicken coops in the backyard, etc.
heh.