A Local

jord | 27/10/09thoughts

I have been contemplating recently how I associate myself with different places. For me there are areas that I will always feel at home. Penshurst (where I grew up), anywhere in the Sydney CBD, Katoomba, the South Coast between Austinmer and Wollongong, Christchurch and its surrounds.

Padstow, 26/10/2009

All these places are familiar and I would say I have an affinity with them, and identify myself with them. I’m not sure yet whether I can say the same for Padstow, where we are living now. I certainly now have a familiarity with the area, and would call it home, but it doesn’t have the same permanence as the other examples.

Interestingly there was once a time when I would have considered the wider Hurstville area as on of “my places”. That’s not really the case any more - for the most part we rarely have a reason to do anything over there.

I wonder what part of our brain it is that processes these things, and whether there are actually firm factors that we feel about certain places. It bears thinking about anyway.

What places do you consider yourself associated with?

Comments

  1. chan | 28/10/09 | 9:13 am

    I struggle with calling so many places ‘home’ including the town where I grew up, but havent lived in for 12 years. As time goes by it appears that the people who are there make it home rather than the place itself. Anywhere that you are, my love, is home to me.

  2. Em M | 28/10/09 | 4:12 pm

    Mmmm, Penshurst, Blakehurst, Austie. I wonder if it’s got more to do with nostalga and memories that make you feel fond of the places, rather than how comfortable you feel there. I only started to feel like a local up here when people I knew drove past and honked at me when I’m out walking along pittwater road…