Random Memory

Most of the time that I set out on my walks, I don't have much of an objective other than to walk and keep my eyes open for interesting things to photograph. In that respect, today's walk was no different from hundreds of other times I'd set out walking. I headed west from my daughter's place towards downtown Lansing, and I decided to not walk along the main drag as a matter of avoiding the noise of traffic.

This meant making a few turns along the way, and as I hadn't been in these neighbourhoods for many years, I wasn't exactly sure of which streets ended where. As I came to an intersection, however, I saw a building across the way and to my left that I recognized as a school; then it occurred to me which school it was (it's actually, now, no longer a school but a neighbourhood library), and I realized exactly where I was.

The woman I was once married to lived on this street at that time. In fact, we spent our first night together in the house she shared with a friend before moving to Ohio for a couple of years. For posterity's sake, I had photographed the house many years ago (when I still lived in town) while on a similar photostroll, but the memory that we had spent our first night together here hit me for the first time today.