US cities in early 60'

"The new American finds his challenge and his love in the traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another while the townlets wither a time and die."

- by John Steinbeck (1902–1968), U.S. author. Travels With Charley: In Search of America, pt. 2 (1961).

Steinbeck added, "This is not offered in criticism but only as observation. And I am sure that, as all pendulums reverse their swing, so eventually will the swollen cities rupture like dehiscent wombs and disperse their children back to the countryside."