urban ku # 168 ~ memory lane
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 08:14AM 
Oakwood Cemetery - Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenYesterday, I mentioned that, on my recent visit to Syracuse, I went on a hunt in a cemetery for a sculpted German shepherd gravestone that occupies a prominent space in my childhood memory bank.
Limited by time and mud, I was unable to locate the grave marker but I did 'rediscover' another gravestone that I had forgotten - a magnificent polished sphere with rough base sculpted from a single stone. The sphere is literally ringed with many small columns marking other family member's grave.
The nano second that the sphere came into view from a distance, it sent a jolt through my memory bank that was amazingly intense. A flood of additional childhood cemetery walk memories came rushing out - the memories were not very specific but the 'feeling' was a particularly intense experience.
Has anyone else out there had a similar experience - picturing a place from your past that triggered 'feeling(s)' more so than specific memories?
Reader Comments (4)
I used to get a memory "hit" whenever I smelled the exhaust of a small bore motorbike — the two stroke scooters which burn an oil/gas mix. That smell would send me back to Europe where I'd spent the odd summer vacation. Back then (early 60s) these scooters were uncommon in Connecticut.
I went to an open house at the house i grew up in, and when i put my hand on the wooden banister, and when i slid the heavy glass door on the showers, i was brought back to when i was a kid then teen, and i did those things every day. those sensations were more real than looking at things, in many ways.
I recently tried to photograph a three block section of the neighborhood in northern Illinois where I walked to and from school everyday from first through third grade. I was so overwhelmingly transported to age 7 or 8 that I couldn't even figure out how to use my camera! ;-) And I'm being only slightly facetious....
The smell of fresh ginger makes me feel loved and cared for. I had a friend that took me in during a rough spot in my life many moons ago and she cooked lots of Asian food for me. So ginger equals love.
I got this response quite strongly when I recently started on a series of photographs from the area I grew up. It started with rush of feelings you describe and then I could remember specific events, days, people, food - all kinds of stuff. I intend to work on this whenever I go back, trying to capture that feeling in pictures.
I also get the same effect from music. Hearing specific songs can transport me to very specific times and places, memories of people and events. It is always preceded by that rush of feelings.
Thinking about it, it is hard to decide if the memories are triggered by the feelings or the sites/sights/sounds directly (with the feelings just a step along the memory process).