Place Holders

 Place. The noun not the verb.  A sense of place is a necessary and powerful phenomena.  In film and literature, place can be a character to advance plot, other characters, or themes.  Recently I began streaming a French TV drama called Mountain Detective.  Set in the French Alps, the backdrop to this typical police show is truly another character.  The French Alps, with sawtooth mountains, pristine rivers and streams, stunning wildflowers, and unpredictable weather pattern certainly exerts a powerful influence on all that happens in this program.  

I'm fascinated how a sense of place appears in my dreams. Even though the street I grew up on in Southern California looks nothing like it did 60 years ago, it sometimes appears as it always was in my mind.  The neighborhood, the street names, the memorable personalities and the geography remain intact in my mind.  The same goes for classrooms in which I have taught, or cars I once had, and even for houses, neighborhoods or cities where I once lived.  Neighborhoods have a very sensory feel as well. Safety or danger, fear or contentment all accompany these dream images.  A frequent theme is living in a house that is very run down on the outside, but aesthetically pleasing on the inside.  This, I'm sure, stems from such a place I lived in while a VISTA Volunteer in Texas.  It remains permanently in my brain and often forms the background for various repetitive themes.

I've noticed, too, that sometimes these features can be combined.  I'll have a dream that takes place in the Bay Area, but the streets will be those from LA or Houston or Portland.  Houses seem familiar but there is always the sense that I haven't been there in a good while.  Sometimes the neighbors or roommates are vaguely familiar, sometimes not. 

Place has such a strong influence on who we are, become, and what we value.  One of the attractions of fly fishing is that you have to go where the fish are.  Often they are in crystal clear streams, beautiful alpine lakes, or isolated wilderness settings.  Place yourself in these venues and it's bound to have a positive impact.  

With a sense of place comes other features.  In various places people speak, look, talk, eat, and value differently.  I recall a summer I spent in New Orleans where a sense of place was so strong, I stood out from those around me simply by ordering a cup of coffee at a favorite coffeehouse.  Not only did I not look particularly Southern, but just the simple act of saying "Large house coffee," gave me away as an outsider.  I defy anyone to live in the South for the better part of a year and not incorporate "y'all" into their daily speech.  On the aforementioned time spent in New Orleans, I recall going out to  dinner in a restaurant with a group of folks from all over the country.  One of our number ordered a salad with red leaf lettuce.  The server asked as she was setting the salad on the table, "excuse me, but not to many folks order this salad and I was wondering, do y'all eat the red part of the leaf?  I soon came to learn, as my time there lengthened, that what passed for a salad in most neighborhood restaurants was a chunk of iceberg lettuce with Russian dressing.