Student Impression

I heard the assignment and sighed.  A walking tour?  Of Mankato?  I sighed again.  What's there really to know about this place?  Here's the college, here's the mall, here's the suburbs.   Maybe the tour will throw in the old standard, here's a Victorian house, here's a Gothic house, more info, more walking, less fun.   I thought it would be some rehashed information on houses, suburbs, and businesses.  I have been known to be wrong, and in this case, I was.  I was amazed at the heritage and culture that was apparent on this tour.  During the tour I hid my enthusiasm and wonder, so I didn't look like a dark in front of my classmates, but when the tour was over, I was absolutely  amazed at what I didn't know about Mankato!  My image of Mankato was increased ten fold.  Mankato was not just a town where I went to school anymore, it now was alive with character, heritage, and information.  It stopped being a one dimensional place, and started being a community.  Kevin Lynch's idea of an image of the city couldn't fit my thoughts better. 

In Lynch's theory, he explains that people could offer a personal image of the city that they lived in, based on where they lived.  For example, he used Boston and the residents there.  People described the part of the city that they lived in well, and generally were vague about the other parts of the city.  They could describe the park they lived near, but when it came to other districts, they only had vague responses.  My thoughts on Mankato couldn't have fit that mold more perfectly.  Sure, I knew the campus, where Stompers was, where Armstrong Hall was, and where Gage towers was.  I could tell you about the mall, and where Wal-Mart was, no problem.  I even knew a little bit about downtown, since my bank is TCF, right near the starting point of the tour.  I was only vaguely aware of the other surroundings, and took little interest in them.  I have to admit, I had only really known about uptown. I had no idea about the size of downtown, or how much living space there is.  I also knew about the old MSU, but had no idea where it was, or what to expect. 

The first thing on our walking tour was the old campus.  I had seen the picture in the tour papers, but was taken back when I saw it for real.  It seemed so unreal that I shook my head.  It looked like something out of a movie.  I chuckled at the adaptive reuse.  It looked like a grand and noble government building in the first place, what better place to put it?  I paused for a moment and tried to take it all in.  What would it have been like to have been here?  I couldn't tell you, and I probably never will be able to tell you.  The first stop on the tour had already shattered the image I held of the city.  It was no longer the city where my school was.  My image of the city started to transform, and started taking into account the past.  The image still had holes, and now I wanted to fill them.

We started moving down the streets and looking at the houses.  I was taking in all of the different styles of houses, guessing which ones were built before the others, and what it looked like when that house was newly built.   I pondered what the owner must have thought when the building was finally done.  How the time it was built effected it, how the owner must have thought that it was the best house on the block, and the most stylish for it's time.  How each cultural setting effected how the house was built, and where the house was built.  My image of Mankato started taking shape again, different from before once again.  This time it wasn't an image of the present, but that of the past, and what it looked like then.  In a half daze, I moved along with the group to another section of town, about to have my image upset once again.