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Coalition Survey Wants Sense of North BerkshireBy Tammy Daniels - October 15, 2007
 | | The smell of Main Street in the morning. |
NORTH ADAMS - Sometimes it's a song, or a particular smell. Or maybe it's the taste in your mouth, the texture under your fingers or the glimpse of a scene that can evoke sharp memories of the past.
"To me, one of the best ways to draw out memories of people is using the senses," said writer Joe Manning, who is well known for his interviews of area residents about the city's history. It's the small stories, he said on Friday, that bring history to life. And many of those stories are linked to one of the senses.
So, at last month's Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, he raised the subject to the membership, who found the idea intriguing. It's being incorporated into the coalition's upcoming 10th annual Neighborhood Expo through an online survey as a way to preserve some distinctive aspects of the city's past.
NBCC sense survey
The link between the senses and memory are well known if only partially understood. Researchers say it's the way the mind archives memories - when one sense is stimulated it triggers others, drawing forth a complete vision of the past.
On Friday, Manning spoke of his own experience in visiting his former elementary school, which has been turned into a maritime museum. The interior had been transformed into a nautical archive but the outside hadn't changed - and neither had its distinctive odor.
"The moment I walked in, it smelled just like my school," he said, transporting him back decades and bringing school memories to the surface.
He thought about how those sense-memories can be reflective of an area and how they make each person unique. And he thought about how he might record those memories for posterity.
One of his examples (which can be found on the survey) came from Carl Robare, who worked at the former Strong-Hewat Mill in the 1950s. Robare told Manning how he worked with a very hairy-chested man who would remove his shirt in the heat. The man's chest would turn the color of the dye being used that day because the wool particles would stick to him. Sometimes he would be green-chested, sometimes blue.
It's small stories like that that help people vividly envision what it was like to work in a wool mill, said Manning.
In the survey, participants are asked to write about what is the first thing they like to look at in the morning, what sound reminds them most of the Northern Berkshires, a specific smell that triggers their memories, favorite foods that are difficult to find elsewhere, a texture that evokes the region, and some basic facts about the person.
Manning will lead a session at the Nov. 17 Expo about the survey and the senses. He's not sure how the survey will be compiled - a list or maybe a booklet - at MCLA Gallery 51.
"What the Expo is really about is celebrating the basics - the little things that define us," he said. "It gives people a greater appreciation about where they live. It let's people know they're important." |
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