Remembering the places where memories were made

 

The average person moves several times in a lifetime. Each place we live creates a unique set of circumstances – new friends, new places to shop, eat and be entertained, etc. Today we’ll examine your memories associated with the places you’ve lived.

To start, list the places you’ve lived, in chronological order. Include the street addresses, if you can. Then write as much as you can about each place:
• How big was it? One story or more? How many rooms?
• What color was it?
• How was it constructed: wood, brick, stucco, stone, etc.?
• Were there any special landscaping features that distinguished it?
• Was the house comfortable for the local climate?
• How many people lived there? List relatives and non-relatives for each location.
• What was your favorite room in the house? Why?
• Describe your bedroom. Where was it located in the house?
• Did your house have a basement or attic? If so, how did you use the space?
• Briefly describe your neighborhood and how your residence fit in.
• Do you have any special memories associated with this particular residence?
• Describe your feelings as you moved in or left from this location. What did you like or dislike about it?

Many of us spent significant time in the homes of others, such as grandparents or close friends. If you have strong memories associated with homes of others, write about them, too. Use your photos to assist you, or talk to others who may have shared experiences from that particular time and place.

Then, add this information at the appropriate spot in your timeline.

Tomorrow: We’ll look at the special people in your life.

This is Lesson No. 8 of a mini-course on how to write a personal history. The course will continue throughout May, which is Personal History Month. To get future lessons delivered to you, you may subscribe to our RSS feed or get e-mail delivery to your inbox. It’s easy. Details can be found in the column to the left of this post.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

Flickr photo courtesy of  YoChicago1.

Comments

[Dean]

Nice post. I invite you to look into Nearbie.com. We created a "places within places" feature so that you can record history related to very specific places, such a "the closet in John's Bedroom". This enables everyone to contribute to the history of "the closet in John's Bedroom" simply through the act of documenting your own history. I look forward to your next post.

[Larry Lehmer]

Thanks for dropping by, Dean. I'll check out Nearbie.com. Sounds like an interesting twist to preserve memories.

[Frumteacher]

Lovely assignment, I think I will use this for my freshmen next school year. Do you feel you could also use this assignment for teaching about historical places in the city/country you live in? I imagine that could work out really nice too.

[Larry Lehmer]

Good idea! This assignment would work well in teaching about historical places in just about any community. It would be interesting to see how different people view the same place.