Barbecue Acres

[hatchoi]

"The houses looked to have been built all around the same time, perhaps thirty or forty years ago. The streets were wide and curving and there were no sidewalks – recalling the time when it was thought unlikely that anybody would do much walking ever again. Friends of Grant’s and Fiona’s had moved to places something like this when they began to have their children. They were apologetic about the move at first. They called it “going out to Barbecue Acres.”

This is a paragraph from Alice Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" and I don't know what these words "Barbecue Acres" refer to?

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2013/10/21/131021fi_fiction_munro?currentPage=all

Many thanks!

 

[perpend]

I am guessing it means mean moving to the sticks, moving to the hinterland, or moving to the "suburbs" .

 

[JustKate]

I am guessing it means mean moving to the sticks, moving to the hinterland, or moving to the "suburbs" .

I'm sure what it means is "suburbs." It appears to be a reference to the sort of neighborhood where everybody has a barbecue, also known as an "outdoor grill."

 

[Sparky Malarky]

The kind of housing addition the story describes was very common at the time it was built. Such places were often given names that the developers thought sounded inviting. These developments have names like Meadow Brook, Hunter's Hills, Dogwood Park, and so on. "____ Acres" was very common. Maybe Redbud Acres, Woody Acres, Forest Acres, or the name of a nearby main street or the developer might have been included: Lincoln Acres, Boseman Acres, etc.

As Kate says, it was common for everyone to have an outdoor grill. So "Barbecue Acres" is a joke. They are making fun of the lifestyle and of the way these developments are named.