Introduction

Sense of place endures all vicissitudes, then, sustaining identity, providing connections to a personal and collective past, offering an emotional center.  It is a rooted and anchored locus of meaning and value.  This may finally be why we develop a strong sense of place, why it is worth thinking and writing about place, why so much folklore adopts it as a theme either directly or obliquely: places, or our understanding of and attachment to vanished places, sometimes feel like all that is solid in a world of change, all that has undiminished value in a world of maddening flux.  -  Kent Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape, 1996:95.

According to Lauri Honko identity is a part of a collective tradition that represents the cultural communication of a group (Honko, 1988: 22).  History, art, architecture, food, rituals, music, dance, and language are all examples of this communication and tradition.  Yet while many of these traditions can become symbols of a particular culture and its identity, it is the meaning and feeling attached to them that foster a sense of belonging and a sense of place:   At a different level of experience, or at a different scale, the landscape of home may be chiefly a litany of names, pictures, and tales of places that record the direct experience of home by one's people….At yet another scale, when experience of other places suggests that some familiar things at home may be distinctive, these may become generic symbols of home (Sopher, 1979: 136). I was already aware of some of the Newfoundland cultural symbols before I arrived.  I understood there was a particular musical tradition, a language or accent, and a lifestyle focused on the fishery.  But as a new arrival in St. John’s I was presented with a series of previously unknown symbols including food items (cod tongues, flipper pie, bologna or "Newfie steak," and Screech rum), phrases ("whata ya at?" "where ya going to?") and references ("maid" - referring to a young woman, and "buddy" referring to an anonymous person or "some guy" ), and particular narratives (legends and ghost stories).  Although these symbols, as they were presented to me, made me aware I was no longer in Montreal, QC, Victoria, BC, or any of the other Canadian cities I’ve lived in, it was the less obvious cultural nuances which brought that realisation home. The first section of this chapter is a brief overview of some of these more subtle cultural traces in order to establish the sense of place in St. John’s.  Intricately woven into the city’s history (see Chapters Three through Six) the latter section of this chapter will establish the Hill’s presence in the lives and memories of local residents and its connection to local sense of place. Next