The Big Smoke

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WotD: The Big Smoke

That’s where all the kids want to go, isn’t it?

The Big Smoke.

They seem to think there is much more opportunity in the big city than there is in the countryside or even in regional towns.

I suppose they’re right – to a point.

I mean, haven’t most of us had dreams of living a fast, glamorous sophisticated life in the Big Smoke?

I know I did.

I’ve lived in Auckland, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, Brisbane, Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, to name a few cities.

Sure the shining lights were alluring and hypnotizing for a time.

Then I began to realize the cost of living there.

I’ve inhaled my fair share of diesel exhaust fumes from buses, trains, planes and automobiles in the Big Smoke.

Not to mention paid exorbitant rents, ran the gauntlet of panhandlers plus buskers, and cursed endless traffic.

Those days were long ago, yet I’m still only 45.

I’ve left all that behind for the sound of laughing rivers, the smell of rice paddies in summer and year-round quiet.

You must have guessed by now that the Big Smoke refers to a big city.

It can be any city, really, but initially, it referred to London.

No, not London, Ontario. London, England and it was called the Big Smoke for a reason.

During Victorian times and up to the 1950s, Londoners burned coal to heat their homes.

As you can imagine, all that smoke combined with the famous London fog created a greasy, misty brown mixture that covered everything.

You could see it and probably smell it, too, from miles away.

That’s why even today, big cities are called the Big Smoke.

(This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

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