AND WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?

Do you know where you're from?  No, I'm not talking the 'birds

and the bees'.  What I mean is, do you have a sense of self springing

from a particular area where you grew up or lived at some point in your

life?  For example, I'm Glasgow-born and lived in the West End of the

city for the first year and a half of my life before moving to a new town.

However, although I'm a Glaswegian by birth, I don't feel so 'con-

nected' to the city as the town in which I grew up.

Humans seem to be territorial creatures and tend to align them-

selves with the neighbourhood they were raised or lived in during the

formative years of their lives.  I spent five and a half of my first seven

years of existence in one neighbourhood, and the next six years, seven

months of my life in another neighbourhood, before moving back to the

first one.  Apart from four years spent in yet another neighbourhood

from 1983 to '87, I've now lived in my current neighbourhood for

forty-four and a half years of my life.

Each of those two neighbourhoods (as well as others) had their
gangs, who were bitter enemies of one another.  Which is not to say
that normal, well-balanced kids from each area didn't get along per-
fectly well together, but 'officially', as far as the neddish gangs were
concerned, they were at war.

If I were to label myself based on where I've lived longest, I'd
be a 'Murray' man, but as I spent nearly seven years of my life from
the age of seven, to five months short of my fourteenth birthday in an
area called Westwood, I tend to think of myself as more of a 'West-
wood' man.  After all, I spent most of my primary school years there,
and continued to go to secondary school in the area, even spending
the final two and a half years of my school life there after moving
back to the Murray.

Thing is 'though, as I lived in the Murray first, and lived there
the longest, I feel slightly disloyal in not thinking of myself, first and
foremost, as a Murray man.  As I said, I only lived in the Westwood
for just under seven years, but that period encompasses most of my
school life, and just about everyone I still know from childhood I first
met while I was living in the Westwood.  Not only that, proportion-
ately, that period was around half my life at that point, so that's
quite a significant factor to consider.

So, to which area should I pin my loyalties and
sense of identity - Murray or Westwood?

 I don't have the same problem when describing my Nationality
on forms - I always put British.  That's because I'm a British Scot or
a Scottish Brit - doesn't much matter which way you put it.  So why's
it so hard when deciding which neighbourhood I'm really from?  I sup-
pose I could say I'm a Westwood man who lives in the Murray, or a
Murray man who lived in the Westwood, but neither seems to do
the situation justice.

Both areas left an impression on me in my formative years,
and in embracing one, I don't want to spurn the other.  The best
I can do is to describe myself as a Westwood/Murray man, or a
Murray/Westwood man, but it still seems to me like sitting on
the fence to some degree.

Aw, shoot!  I'll work it out one day I guess.  What I want to
know 'though, is where you consider yourself from.  Is it the area
you grew up, or the one of which you have the fondest memories -
or even the one you've lived in longest?  Or don't you think that
way?  Perhaps I've just got far too much time on my hands in
even pondering the matter?

If you feel motivated, share your thoughts and observations
in the comments section.  That's what it's there for.

Posted in: Cartoons