It's obvious why. I've seen so many films and read so many books based in Brooklyn that I'm acquainted with a lot of Brooklyn streets and landmarks. Plus I once had a friend in Brooklyn who would tell me about her favourite local coffee shop, her walks with the dog, typical Brooklyn street scenes, how Brooklyn was coping with the Hurricane Sandy devastation in 2012, and all sorts of local details. Plus I've looked at Brooklyn on street view so I've digitally been to the Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery.
Right now I'm re-reading "Say Her Name" by Francisco Goldman, who lived with his wife Aura in Degraw Street, Brooklyn, until she died in a tragic surfing accident at the age of 30.
So you can see I'm thoroughly steeped in Brooklyn lore and culture, although I've never set foot in Williamsburg or Carroll Gardens. One day I might actually go there and and see how much of my mental image corresponds with the reality.
Because I'm getting constant reminders of Brooklyn, it seems more real to me than the neighbourhood I first lived in as a child, which is now no more than a distant and fading memory. I've never been back there since the family moved house in 1960.
I guess other people must have vivid images of places they've never been to. Images so tangible you have to remind yourself they're not the real thing.
Pic: Park Slope, Brooklyn
It is a very familiar image.
ReplyDeleteBut what was a surfer doing living in Brooklyn?
Liz: Aura's family lived in Mexico, and she knew Mexico and its beaches well. She and Francisco, who at the time were living in Brooklyn, went on a trip to Mazunte beach in South Mexico, where Aura accidentally drowned after they had taken some surfing lessons.
DeleteThat’s so interesting that you feel a bond with Brooklyn, even though you’ve not spent time there. One of my blogger friends has lived there for most of his life, so I do enjoy hearing about what he sees and does there.
ReplyDeleteMy husband lived in Brooklyn for two semesters of college, doing a cooperative education job at the World Trade Center. We actually met in between the semesters while he was home on break, so I had the opportunity to visit him twice in Brooklyn. This was 1984 and before gentrification, so a much difference atmosphere than today. His car was broken into the first night he moved in. Although he’s been back to NYC many times for business, he has no desire to spend time there otherwise!
My spirit animal lives in California!
Bijoux: Yes, I gather some areas of Brooklyn have been gentrified while others are still pretty rough. Jenny and I were in San Francisco a few years back and it was depressingly seedy. But I guess other parts of California are more attractive.
DeleteI made it a point to visit Brooklyn on one trip to the USA in the eighties and enjoyed the experience. The one place I would very much like to visit but never did and keep getting reminded of is Canada.
ReplyDeleteRamana: Jenny and I have been to Canada several times. We love Vancouver and the Rockies. I don't care much for Toronto, but Jenny has cousins there so she visits regularly.
DeleteNo, there is no place that has entered my head to such an extent.It could be that I do not watch many films.
ReplyDeleteI do have a photographic memory of places I have lived in or visited, though.
Fly: I have the exact opposite, a very poor memory. I can remember places I've visited but the day-to-day experiences mostly escape me.
DeleteI shall explore Brooklyn on my next New York trip
ReplyDeleteJohn: You should. I get the impression Brooklyn is a lot less hectic and manic than Manhattan.
DeleteYou should go Nick, parts of Brooklyn are beautiful, with lovely architecture and interesting history.
ReplyDeletePolly: Well, that's a very positive recommendation. We really must try and get to Brooklyn once the international travel chaos finally subsides.
DeleteThe sense that we belong somewhere is a strange feeling. From my own experience and from what others say, we often live in one place and feel we belong elsewhere. I certainly do - but the strange thing is, I'm not sure I'd like to live in my 'spiritual home'. I think part of its specialness is the fact that I don't live my day-to-day life there.
ReplyDeleteSackerson: I also feel a strong connection with Australia and New Zealand (which I've actually visited). If Jenny and I had discovered NZ much earlier, we might very well have moved there.
DeleteAndy and I hate cities, so I'm afraid I have no interest in going to Brooklyn. I used to love going to San Francisco when I was in college, though. I still have vivid memories of restaurant meals there.
ReplyDeleteJean: Unfortunately San Francisco has changed for the worse. It's now crammed with rough sleepers and disturbed individuals of all kinds, with little being done to help them. Lots of people are moving out of SF to places like Oakland.
DeleteI love the old brownstones... regardless of 'where' they are. the picture you've chosen is beautiful to me.
ReplyDeleteI liked them in London as well... though they're not called brownstones probably? but you know what I mean.
NYC just has that vitality to it. mostly my personal experience of it has mainly been through many movies.
like When Harry Met Sally... and You've Got Mail. and even the old black and white films. I always hear music too when I think of it. Cole Porter... mellow jazz... Gershwin! and Billy Joel.
and then Hubble Gardner. and Katie's apartment!
I'm thinking it was set in Brooklyn... in The Way We Were.
Woody Allen loves the city too. (but especially Manhattan.) it stars in lots of his movies! not sure I could live there though. but it just always has a romantic lure to me.
"New York New York! what a wonderful town!"
I SEE NY whenever I think of any of that. odd. I don't have to recall a specific street or such. it's an overall feeling. but it's also probably not 'real.' ah. well. I've enjoyed this. LOL.
Tammy: We've been to NYC twice. The first time we loved it, the second time we weren't so keen on the frantic pace of everything. I also think of Woody Allen as synonymous with New York.
DeleteIn the UK brownstones would be called townhouses, I guess. There are loads of them in all the major cities, especially Edinburgh and Bath.
Nope. I have memories of some places I've lived back when I was as young as age 2. I get caught up in a place when I'm reading a book or watching a program set there but nothing as intense as what you describe. I do look up locations on maps, though, to get a sense of where are the places I'm reading about.
ReplyDeleteLinda: I also look up unfamiliar locations on maps - and on street view. Some of the images I see on street view really stick in my mind.
DeleteI think it's lovely that you feel an affinity with a place you've barely visited. I wish I could say the same.
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: It's strange, isn't it? Maybe I lived in Brooklyn in a previous life?
DeleteEven though we lived in Connecticut for three years--I was only there about half the time as I was stationed on a submarine--we never stopped in NYC when we traveled through on our way to other places.
ReplyDeleteYears later, our son-in-law was stationed in New Jersey in the air force. While visiting our daughter and son-in-law when they were there, we did one day-trip into the city where we rode the Staten Island Ferry, went to Ellis Island, Central Park, Macy's, etc. and took the subway. The streets and scenes were all very, very familiar.
On thing we said we would do if we ever made it back was to go to the observation deck at the World Trade Center. Sadly, our only NYC visit was in July 2001, two months before the towers were attacked.
Mike: The first time Jenny and I went to Sydney, the well-known landmarks were very familiar since we'd seen so many photos of them.
DeleteWe also visited Ellis Island when we were in New York the second time, and it was very informative and thought-provoking.
We were on the top of the World Trade Centre in 1996, and it was an incredible shock when the towers were demolished.
I've been to New York once, and it was interesting. I've been to New Jersey a few times to visit Ken's family and he showed me around where he grew up.
ReplyDeleteMary: It's interesting to see where your partner grew up, and to see all their childhood haunts. It tells you a bit more about them.
DeleteI do that thing of getting on the street view...I will read a blog and it will mention some place, so I go look for myself. I have did that for years to see what is down roads I have passed but didn't have time to explore. Just in the past few months I have been exploring places all over.
ReplyDeleteRose: Street view is great. It's as if you're actually in the street, just like one of the locals.
DeleteFor years when I was a young woman I had images of the Grand Canyon, prompted mostly from listening to The Grand Canyon Suite orchestral recordings. I did finally visit the site and was not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteJoared: Glad to know you weren't disappointed after all the years of imagining!
DeleteInteresting. I've gone to NYC just a couple of times and don't know if I was ever in Brooklyn. I don't feel a real attachment to any city, though. My heart lies more with small towns and the countryside.
ReplyDelete