Seven Fridays in South Phoenix
Observations, Reflections, and
Photographs by Matthew Alan Lord
Memory Map Exercise for Oakville,
Missouri
The
past is a foreign country, it is said, and this holds true for the
memory map I have just finished rendering. The map below represents
not one but two snapshots in time. Only after I was well along in
the process did I realize I was constructing two messages. The
first, of course, is the date I chose to represent. The second,
subtler portrait it paints conveys how I presently see myself as a
shaped by my experiences in that time and place. I chose to
represent Oakville at a time when I was aware of more than just the backyard.
Oakville, Missouri was and is an unincorporated suburb of Saint Louis County.
My parents moved into one of the first subdivisions built there
several years earlier. New houses were still coming out of the
ground around the corner. I then spent my youth watching as
suburbia spread into the area.
The
map says much about my family’s social network at the time. It
focused on the church and the affiliated school we attended. My
main connections outside of that related to soccer in the Catholic
Youth Council league, and so a few of those fields are noted. Other
schools also show up, as do the then-new shopping plazas and grocery
stores. When we moved there, Telegraph Road was a two lane state
highway, but was “always under construction.” Little other detail
is present, outside the two most prominent features in my mind: “The
Woods” and “The Library,” so named as if there were no other. The
Woods was partially destroyed and replaced by The Library by this
time. I spent countless hours out in nature and in books, both fond
memories. Combined with experiencing suburbanization first hand, my
time in The Woods and The Library may explain why I now am studying
how another community is dealing with growth. By becoming an Urban
Environmental Planner, I hope to help other communities make better
choices than Oakville did.
Click on image for Memory Map