Scott Lewis

Color: Life in an American suburb

Kids, cul-de-sacs and

the New American Dream

A typical new American suburb. Homes tend to have a similar look due to the limits of mass production and resale possibilities. Developers offer good housing prices but the aesthetic cost to buyers is less options than an entirely custom built home. Homes that are less unusual or distinctive tend to be harder to sell than more traditional styles.
   
Michael Dietz plays bagpipes to draw customers' attention to Walkers Shortbread during the opening of the Dominick's grocery store. Potential customers were allowed to browse through the store and get free samples of items, however, they were not allowed to make any purchases. Some potential customers stood in line for an hour to see the store.
   
Capping off the homecoming celebration, students cram into the school's atrium for the dance Saturday night.
     
  
Dan Butler, second from left, bounces his three month old daughter Kelly while he and other parents keep their babies occupied during the monthly baptism service for parishoners of Our Lady of Mercy Church at Saint Anne's Church in Oswego. Our Lady of Mercy was in the process of building their church and used the Oswego facility on Sunday afternoons for their baptism services. This Sunday there were eleven babies baptised.
   
Between the heat of an afternoon sun and the flame of the grill, Steve Murphy, left, fires up about 80 hot dogs on a neighbor's grill while neighbor Scott Gresko smokes up nearly 40 brauts. The partners in grilling were preparing food for a block party in the Amberwood subdivision. 'My wife volunteered me,' Murphy said. '(For) any relief from the hectic day to day of business, I'll volunteer for anything.'
   
Rich and Pam Heller catch some shuteye while going home after a full day of work and a few hours of school. Starting their day at 5:30 am, the Hellers go to school three nights a week and arrive back home in Naperville around 9:30 pm.
     
  
Lauren Taylor, Tammy Norton and Marie Pautler relax after a day at the block party in the Lakeridge subdivision.
  
Women scramble for free gifts at a Tupperware party.
   
A couple wheel a fiberglass Virgin Mary around the back of Our Lady of Mercy Church. The church was newly opened as Catholics fled the city for the far reaches of the subrubs and shifted the population of the Chicago area dioceses.
     
  
Friends from Waubonsie Valley High School tan themselves just down the street from their school alongside a sod farm.
   
After searching through area malls and stores, Waubonsie Valley senior Missy Dugan finally chose a blue sequined dress for $150.
   
Barb Cannan, left, watches her daughter, Megan, prepare to leave with her friends for the dance. Like many girls, Megan shopped for and purchased her dress with her mother.
     
  
For $65 a couple, 425 couples attended Waubonsie Valley's yearly dance ritual at the Radisson Hotel in Lisle.
   
'We've never lost a squirtgun fight since we've lived here,' Tiernan McDonald, 9, asserts after claiming victory over another band of neighborhood kids during the block party on Cranberry Lane.
   
A student practices his violin before a concert at Waubonsie Valley High School.
     
  
Jaime Morse, center, and Jon Dee, right, wait for first period each day by watching the first floor activity from the second floor. 'The sun's showing up. It didn't do that before. Summertime,' Morse said about the recent change in the scenery at that spot.