About 30 years ago, I took a trip with two girlfriends to Saltillo, Mexico, for a weekend. In the evening, the city park was full of people just out for a stroll-- families with kids, couples, teens in groups. It was so nice. It seemed like the whole town was out walking. People there told us that was a regular thing on weekends.
When I was a kid (Air Force brat) we knew people who had been stationed in Germany and they said the same thing-- that on Sunday afternoons, families regularly went out in groups, strolling in parks and woods, stopping to chat with friends, maybe having a picnic.
My question: does this still go on in any communities anywhere in the world that you know of?
Of course, TV was well established in the early 80’s, but computers, internet, and smartphones were not. Has that technology killed the Sunday Stroll? Or maybe people are still out walking, but they’re on their phones texting (God, I hope not)?
In many of the parks where we live, in nice weather there are lots of families outside barbecuing on the lakefront, and a number of adult soccer leagues (largely ethnic). People set up camp for the whole day with grills, sometimes tents, etc.
The bike paths and trails in open space parks in my area are full of families walking on the weekends. I stopped going to one of my favorites (Rancho San Antonio) because it got too crowded.
Some of the bigger county and city parks around Pittsburgh it is still fairly common and there are some places up in the Endless Mountains (small towns and communities) where its still the norm. But in the suburbs I know it has almost died away entirely.
I live near the ocean and there are pedestrian walkways along the cliffs. They’re very popular. Some people just walk out of their houses in their bathrobes and slippers and drink their coffee staring at the ocean, which is amusing.
Not like I saw in Mexico. Literally hordes of people filling a public park at night, just walking and socializing. Here’s a good description (with pictures): “…thousands of families, children, roller-bladers and dog-walkers strolling down a large avenue on a Sunday evening. A sea of people filling the four-lane street and the wide tree-shaded median.” The writer continues, wishing this kind of social walking could happen in Houston:
My emphasis. IMHO This could never happen in Houston, which is a very car-oriented city.
Or what friends described in Germany, families walking in their good clothes after church on Sunday.I found this about Germany: “Sunday walks by extended families along forest paths are a common sight, as are parents on bicycles with small children trailing behind.”
I saw a National Geographic Special about Iran once, which showed something like this in cities in years past.
I don’t live near any big parks, but if I drive around one, I certainly see tons of people out doing various outdoorsy things, including walking. But not masses of people just strolling, seemingly for the purpose of getting out to be with other people.
There used to be a phenomenon similar to that here (illustrated in the movie American Graffiti) where on Friday night kid in cars would drive up and down one particular street, just to see and be seen. Hundreds of kids and dozens of cars. I’m talking about something like that, but on foot, a massive, yet informal, group activity.
But if you read just a little further on in your cite, you’ll find this
They aren’t walking just to be walking, or even just to be in the company of other people. They are walking to be part of an “event”. And event is in quotes because it may not be formally organized in any way but walking down a street or through a park with bands and dancing is very different than walking through a park with nothing to look at but trees or down a street with nothing to look at except uninteresting buildings. What’s described in that article is something closer to a street festival - and those happen all the time in walkable places.
Here in South Florida we have several areas with long “boardwalks” (sidewalks really) along the beach. Some have just a narrow strip of park-like landscaping and then the beach. Others are lined with shops and cafes. All are full of people walking or sunning or picnicking or whatever from sunrise to late at night. We see newborns, infants, toddlers, etc., all the way to ancient folks too infirm to walk unassisted. Walkers, runners, bikers, rollerbladers, skateboarders, scooter riders, etc.
I live adjacent to one such area and most days I’m out among them for a couple hours. It’s a continuous slow-motion low-grade party. Not that anyone knows anyone outside their little group, but over time you get to recognizing a few of the real locals amongst the more numerous tourists and part-time residents.
The languages you’ll hear are amazing. English and Spanish of course, but so many different dialects of Spanish. Creole, German, French French and Quebecios French, Russian (or is it Polish?), Brazilian Portuguese, and that’s just the start.
I grew up with that custom in Germany, and yes, going for a stroll on weekends (there’s even a word for it, “Sonntagsspaziergang”, sunday walk.) is an age-old tradition. When I was a kid, the whole family regularly went out walking on Sunday afternoons between lunch and afternoon coffee, and I still often do when I visit my parents on sundays. Judging by the number of young families I encounter on these walks, it’s still a thing for the younger generations.
Yep! Here in San Diego, there are a handful of really nice walking trails: the Lake Murray peripheral road, Cowles Mountain, Marion Bear Park, and a buncha others. On a nice sunny weekend, when it hasn’t gotten too awfully hot yet, you’ll see people out by the scores and scores, families, hiking clubs, bicyclists, and people walking very happy doggies.
Well, we have a word for everything, and in the rare cases that we don’t, we can easily make one up on the spot that maybe nobody ever has used before, but is instantly understood by every other German speaker. That’s the beauty of the German language :). But the English language got one thing in its favor: though there isn’t any excess of building compound words like in German, you have your vast number of original words (I’ve read one time that English is the language with the largest vocabulary of all, sorry, no cite) that are sometimes so highfalutin that it’s hard for a German to imagine even a compound to easily translate it. I’m just learning it again the hard way by reading the autobiography by Peter Ustinov. He knew many words I never encountered before for.
