Autoethnography
Autoethnography
An Autoethnography is a reflection of one's own culture through the lens of past experiences and research that surrounds those past experiences in the culture.
“New Jersey is the place to become poor up north but rich in the south. Why did you think we moved down here”. Apt words from my mom. She was raised in New Jersey after being born in the worst borough in New York; Staten Island. She tells me all the time about her childhood in Old Bridge. “Unlike here [Myrtle Beach]”, tells my mom, “We could walk anywhere and find anything we wanted. Everything is so far apart here. Not dense at all”. I also hold this sentiment but in a different light. I was raised in suburbia. Not lower-class suburbia, but middle-class suburbia. This is a very important distinction to make. I’ve lived in lower-class suburbia before. It’s like the actual community that my mom talked about. You could run around with the neighborhood kids, walk down to the corner store, get kicked out, and go back to my friend’s house where dinner would be ready. Middle-class suburbia is much different, at least in Myrtle Beach. It’s a sanctuary of mutual solitude.
No one talks to each other, no one starts community barbeques, and no one goes over to each other’s house. The only ‘community’ within this suburbia is the HOA and ‘council’. The ‘council’ is an unofficial group in my neighborhood that essentially vouches for the rest of us against the tyrannical HOA (For those who don’t know, the HOA, or Homeowner’s Association, is a group that sets ground rules for communal living. They dictate what you can and cannot build, where you can park your car, and where most community conflicts are resolved).
The only problem with this ‘representative body’ is that it’s only made up of the most affluent of the community. There is no representation for my family, who is lower on the totem pole.
To illustrate this point is the story of our communities’ swimming pool. So, to establish some context, my community, Jessica Lakes East, is a planned one. It is made up of mostly northerners of the geriatric kind. They are cranky, paranoid, and ignorant to say the least. They also act on a whim, which ties into why we even have a swimming pool, to begin with. With that out of the way, here’s the story. Our community was to choose between sidewalks or a swimming pool. We chose the swimming pool for some reason (we were against the swimming pool, and we were outnumbered 3-1).
This was 2 years ago. Due to COVID-19, the construction of the swimming pool was delayed until the beginning of this year. The entitled old people in my development were none too pleased with this decision since they couldn’t possibly conceive that the HOA didn’t want to get the construction company sick.
Throughout this period, it was nothing but nagging and complaining from the old people. It came to a point where the council was formed that would purposely violate HOA rules to get their attention. A fine goal ignoring the fact it caused further delays in the project. The council, hearing this, decided to do the unthinkable: wave the US flag upside down in protest. ‘Gasp!’ said the soulless HOA, ‘whatever will we do!?’. Nothing was solved and the pool was finished as scheduled. Instead of a celebratory community pool party, it became another cry fest. The council complained about the size of the pool, the depth of the pool, the lack of seating, the fence being too short, and the pool being too close to the street.
The HOA considered their complaints (the shredder) and went about their business as if nothing happened. For a month, around 70% of the community boycotted the swimming pool. The other 30%, who weren’t old people with nothing better to do, brought their children to the swimming pool and didn’t pay much mind to the ‘problems’ that it had. Last month, after record-high sweltering heat, the boycott was lost and now the pool is packed all the time.
This is a wholly new experience for me. I have never seen so many people mobilize on an issue of such little importance in my entire life. And I think it impacted me to a degree I have just started to realize myself. It has brought me out of my isolation from the community and has made me realize a community dominated by the entitled and spoiled cannot call itself a community at all. I think that this event has personally affected the way I see the people and towns around me. I never really thought much of it before. I just thought that this was the way it usually is when you attain a degree of social credit. You just become miserable and entitled to everyone regardless of their social class. It has made me realize that I will try my hardest to make this community stand on its own feet without the need for Northerners to get in the way of business. And they DO get in the way of the needs of the people.
For instance, according to the Horry County Government in their IMAGINE 2040 zoning plan, a majority of the population growth has come from out of state. The population has almost tripled since the 90s. Poverty is still higher than the national average despite the vast influx of wealth that is entering the state from the Northeast. Also, despite a massive increase in businesses over the decades, citizens who have lived here for more than 20 years have seen only a minor increase in income, while the number of people who need food stamps and unemployment remains the same.
The new influx of wealth into Horry County has not stimulated the people of this county. It has only remained in the hands of the few. The few I have already described today. It becomes more and more apparent that we are only seen as labor for the rich folk from the big cites. We aren’t people per se, but rather consumers. They don’t want to help us. The government, despite its lofty 2040 plan, has to bend to the will of these northerners as they bring in more taxable wealth and business.
I do not think this is an inherent northerner vs southerner problem. A lot of the original business owners from 50-60 years ago are still here. But they also don’t care. It’s a class thing more so. Northerners are just the biggest offenders of this problem. As a northerner myself, I cannot wait for them to leave after the gold rush.
Work Cited
“IMAGINE 2024.” Horry County Government - Home, 8 Dec. 2020, https://www.horrycounty.org/Departments/Planning-and-Zoning/IMAGINE2040.
Mojo, Patricia. Personal interview. 10 September 2022