Have you ever walked down a street and noticed that all the houses look alike? Perhaps the children aren’t all skipping rope and bouncing balls in rhythm, but “the small square boxes painted gray” aren’t so far from those eerily described in A Wrinkle in Time. Have you ever wondered what would happen if one of those houses were different? If an owner, by accident or plan, made their gray box into something else?
If you were thinking a lawsuit would result, you’d be right. That’s exactly what happened in the California town of Hillsborough after Florence Fang, the owner of the Flintstone House, added a few metal dinosaurs among other yard decorations, making the property look even stranger than its brightly painted concrete domes already did.
The town, deeming her decorations an “eyesore,” filed suit against Fang, alleging that she had violated landscaping ordinances. So much for a home as a proverbial castle.
Town officials need to go back and read their children’s books. Mr. Plumbean, the hero of The Big Orange Splot, lived on Neat Street, and his house was just like his neighbors’ until a seagull dropped a can of orange paint on his roof. Instead of cleaning it up, he was inspired to paint his house to reflect his dreams. Although his neighbors complain, after talking to him, they all paint and even reshape their houses too. In the end they tell the reader, “Our street is us and we are it. Our street is where we like to be, and it looks like all our dreams.”
Perhaps the city of Hillsborough shouldn’t be so worried that Fang’s house is different, but that all the others are so similar — and maybe we all should be asking if it’s because we’re afraid of our dreams.
