Images from top to bottom: comparison of the routes (left from tracking, right from memory); annotations of things I saw and remembered from my walk; timeline representing those annotations; comparison of the four elements together. The new elements relate more to the thoughts I have while walking and help me to organize things I noticed. Some of them bring back memories, while some are merely just observations. The timeline is a version of the map without all the bends and turns (as if I took the map and stretched it out into one line). I've found that keeping the timeline helps me remember the walk better, since my thoughts on the walks recall landmarks that help me pinpoint where I may have been at the time a thought occurred.
Below is the journal I kept for this walk. Because I'm recalling things in the order in which they happened, the journal functions more like a list.
1.69 miles
30:28
Weather: Sunny. Hot. Sweaty.
Hardie building. Past sketchy area where Melissa mentioned having to walk through. Firetrucks and whale building. Houses. Memory of photoshoot with Kris of Beverly houses. Mindset at first: hard to get into just thinking because I feel like I’m always on guard. House with hummingbird feeder; made me think of Nana because she gave me the hummingbird pin. Turning corner at house with super pretty garden; also reminds me of Nana’s house because she had tons of lawn ornaments and this crystal ball that hung in the window and made rainbows in the house when the light shone through it. Super big tree. Houses that looked ridiculous with big pillars. Brick sidewalks remind me of Stonehill College tours. Went down narrow side street; also reminded me of grandparents driveway because it like I would be coming out in front of their house). Turned around because there was a dead end. Tree with 3 pom poms hanging from its branches. House (or possibly apartments) that had a super big number (36 I think) and cross sticks above it. New salad place on Rantoul. Side street and door I used to go in when I lived in apartment Junior year. Taco place; reminds me of John telling me about Andy Bablo. Turning up Federal street; thinking about Friday morning walk to train because I used to park there and walk to the train station. Stopped at car for lunch bag. Virgin Mary statue #1; reminds me of when John and I were talking about people with cement lawns that had ½ bathtubs sticking out of them and Virgin Mary. Crossed the street because someone was crossing the street to my side. Virgin Mary #2; brain going back to previous conversations. Random phone book near Saint Mary's school. Glared at a car because they stopped to let me cross then they sped up (insert dirty look here). Still some construction on Winter Street; thinking about Papa because the dirt/rocky area like the whole backyard where he works on trucks.
O'Keane her discussion of time and place memory (pp106-108) comes to mind.
ReplyDelete"We have more certainty about place as event memories age than we have about time..."
"We 'place' the event in time through juxtaposition with other events."
in your journal extract, memories, reminded-of's are like eddies or spiralings out, from the relatively straight lines of the walk. like displacements of water, made by a moving ship or boat?
your journal reads like a conversation with yourself... which brings to mind the notion discussed yesterday, of any conversation as a kind of walk, with turns, reversals... empty passages, uncomfortable moments...