A childhood belief about in the street

The old Sydney suburb of Balmain, where I was a child, had long been an almost self-sufficient town, with it's own Town Hall, Courthouse, Police Station, Fire Station, large Post Office, ferry, tram and bus services and a number of sporting facilities. It also had long rows of shops, three cinemas, four Primary schools, three secondary schools, a major hospital, several big churches (the Roman Catholics with their own convent and seminary). There was a major shipbuilding dockyard where my grandfather worked, a coalmine, several large factories and a big power station, together with many other enterprises. As a little kid I assumed that all suburbs were like that, and was horrified to visit relatives in places just full of houses and where all the people seemed to do was go there to sleep!