Grammy

Green’s House:

An Atlas of My Family’s

Memories

By: Tarrah Martinelli

It didn‟t take me long to come up with my local place for this mapping project. I have a very large

family, consisting of 14 Great Aunts and Uncles, and my Grandmom - most of whom are still alive. They all grew

up in my hometown of Pitman, NJ, right across the street from the house that I grew up in. When my Great

Grandmother, Grammy Green, passed away, my Great Aunt Lee inherited the house. It continued to be the

home that my family was centered around. My cousins and I grew up having family gatherings there. It was like

Grammy Green never left. When my Aunt Lee decided to sell the house, everyone was really upset. Three

generations grew up in this house, so it was hard for my family to let it go.

Many of my family members have stayed in South Jersey, so finding people to map the house was easy.

Convincing them that I wasn‟t allowed to give them any directions, and they could map it however they

wanted...was difficult. Everyone wanted to know if I wanted a floor plan, how detailed it should be, or if should

they include the outside. Every person I collected the maps from told me they felt like it wasn‟t finished, and

that they didn‟t do a good enough job. I think when you have such a strong connection to a place, it‟s hard to

feel like you‟ve done it justice.

Altogether, I have compiled ten maps of my Grammy Green‟s house, including my own. I have received

maps from my Cousin Liz, Mom, Uncle Gary, Grandparents, and four of my Great Aunts. I decided to pick

members of my family that represent different generations to see the variations that would show up. The maps

have been put in order by age, youngest to oldest. The further you get into this series of maps, the further back

in time you go...

Cousin Liz

Tarrah, First Floor

Tarrah, Second Floor

Mom

Uncle Gary, First Floor

Uncle Gary, Second Floor

Uncle Gary, Third Floor

Great Aunt Janice

Grandpop

Grandmom, First Floor

Grandmom, Second Floor

Grandmom, Third Floor

Great Aunt Andrea

Great Aunt Michel

Great Aunt Lee

After looking through the maps, one of the main differences noticeable was the way that the authors

chose to use the words and images intermittently. Some people chose to write “bedroom,” while others drew a

bed with no title. Sean Hall explains in his book, “This Means This, This Means That: A User‟s Guide to Semiotics,”

that text is used along with images for a number of reasons. In reference to the maps, using text helped explain

what each room was and where certain things were placed. This leaves less interpretation for the viewer.

Instead of drawing boxes to show where the walls were, everyone took the time to fill in what the room was (ex.

sunroom, bedroom, etc.), and/or what was located in it. Without this text, it would be possible to figure out

what the drawings represent because we are familiar with these symbols, but it might be more difficult. It‟s

obvious that the authors wanted their viewers to know what everything stood for, in the most accurate way

possible. It also allows the viewers to be able to compare the maps, and see where the different memories are

apparent.

Since this selection of maps is comprised of three different generations of memories, Denis Wood‟s idea

of temporal code is evident. When comparing the maps, it is easy to see what things stayed the same over the

years and what changed. For example, the spot that the Christmas tree was located every year was written on

three of the maps, spanning over three generations. Only three people included the third story of the house,

which was a bedroom and walk in closet. This part of the house was rarely used after Grammy Green passed

away, which leads me to believe that the other part of Wood‟s temporal code, noise, is why people forgot

about it or chose not to include it. Time had passed since the third story had been used, and it‟s also been

approximately twelve years since my family lived in the house. Another example of this is that nobody included

drawings of the two basements, but four people included where the basement steps were located.

When comparing the different versions of the maps, it becomes questionable about which is the most

accurate. What in the maps is true, and what is false? Due to the amount of time that has passed, it‟s difficult to

conjure up perfect memories of a place we once knew so well. Obviously, the dimensions of the rooms are not

put to scale, but the location of where they are was drawn as accurate as possible. When looking at the

multiple variations, it must be considered that there are multiple truths. My cousin Liz was the only person to

include the can crusher on the back porch. Since nobody else included this, it doesn‟t mean that she is

incorrect. Also, only three people included the third story of the house, but that doesn‟t mean that it might not

have existed. What is meaningful to include for one author, does not have to be meaningful for another. The

memories that my Great Aunts used to create their drawings could be going back 50 years. That‟s a lot of noise

to sort through.

This leads into Sean Hall‟s before and after of semiotics. Hall states, “even though we might have a

standard way of representing „before and after‟ sequences visually, we can also deviate from it” (88). When

looking specifically at the map my Aunt Janice has included, she has chosen to add things that represent

different time periods in the same picture. She included the location of the hospital bed that Grammy Green

spent her last days in, along with the date of her death. In the same drawing, she has included “dry mittens

here,” and “potatoes on stove.” These represent memories from her childhood, but she was a grown adult and

mother when Grammy Green passed away. In the first map that my cousin drew, she wrote, “Grandmom/Aunt

Lee‟s room.” This is where the master bedroom was, which my Aunt Lee took over once Grammy Green passed

away. In my Aunt Lee‟s version, she showed the passing of time a much different way. The childhood pictures

that represent her map of the house that she grew up in, are accompanied with taglines such as, “births,

“growing,” “leaving,” and “remembering.” This shows both the physical and emotional passing of time.

Works Cited

Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semitoics. London: Laurence King. 2007.

Wood, Denis. The Power of Maps. New York, NY. The Guilford Press. 1992.