Nov 30, 2021
Over last Thanksgiving, about sixty-one million people took to the skies and road. This flow of traffic demonstrated our love and duty to the family, but it also portrayed changing patterns of living.
In the 1950s, one in ten people lived alone. Now, it is one in three. A Pew report reported that sixty-one percent of elderly people want to remain in their own homes. Only eight percent would like to move in with family.
The economic downturn is contributing to the creation of multigenerational households but the underlying trend is more single households. This means more travel on holidays to unite with loved ones. These brief reunions often promote nostalgia for when we lived close by.
I envy a friend who can walk to extended family and school friends but her grandchildren live several hours away. That portends the future. I am wondering how transportation would evolve.
