I created the Locker-Polding Index six years ago during a trip to Auburn, Alabama to visit my mother’s family. I was absentmindedly looking at Google Maps when I stumbled upon a spot near my family’s home called The Bottle. I zoomed in and saw that it wasn’t a town– just an intersection. Specifically, the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 West and North College Street. Why is there a point on the map called The Bottle?! I wondered.
I researched it, I wrote about it, I drew it, and I created my website as a way to keep track of interesting things. An index, if you will! A Locker-Polding Index! No one liked the name.
In the years since, The Locker-Polding Index has been a mostly dormant website and Instagram page. Occasionally, I get a message from a business asking to use an illustration. A cafe sells a bag with my art on it. I went back to school, I moved, I had a baby. I still draw places I like. I still pay for my website.
The Locker-Polding Index has always been about finding what’s special about where you are. Originally, I framed it as seeing your hometown through the eyes of a tourist. What are the things you take for granted about where you live? Etc. I could never fully explain it or narrow down the concept.
Now that I have a toddler, I’ve been watching a lot of Bluey (separate newsletter about Bluey to follow). One night this week, while I watched Bluey alone after Maslow had gone to bed, I found myself thinking, Wow, if Brisbane is this beautiful, maybe we should move there. I looked at multiple lists of Bluey locations in real life and realized… Brisbane looks like a totally normal place; it’s the cartoon that makes it look magical. As I compared a cartoon escalator to its real life counterpart, it hit me that this is what I do when I draw places for the Index: I take real places, find the perfect angle, pick the colors, and highlight what makes me feel happy.
Recently I’ve come upon the concept of romanticizing your life, or celebrating the everyday aspects of life to elevate them from mundane to beautiful. I think that was part of what my goal has always been with the Index: to force myself not only to appreciate my surroundings but to seek out things that interest and inspire me. I hope a weekly round-up in the form of a newsletter will further my goals— or at least help me organize and reframe my thoughts. I guess the newsletter will be my way of romanticizing… my inane thoughts?
Good Things that Happened this Week
Our team, Maslow’s Higher IQ of Needs, won third place in trivia.
We finally put our shoe storage cabinet near the front door; it’s been living in our office (room for unpacked boxes) since we moved in.
I went to Auburn with Maslow and my mom. I haven’t been to campus in years, and it has changed so much.
Maslow has fully embraced the sign for “food”.
I delivered my sixth baby.
Places I went:
Irritable Bao in Auburn. I had a pretty good pork and cabbage bao. I need to explore the Auburn food scene before I can say it’s the most interesting food in town, but… it feels like it’s currently the most interesting food in town.
Toomer’s Corner for lemonade.
Things I watched/read/listened to:
Series 4 of Taskmaster New Zealand. I don’t like it :(
New series of University Challenge. This is the first season without Jeremy Paxman, who has retired because of Parkinson’s Disease. I like his replacement, Amol Rajan, but he looks like a tiny elf sitting behind the new desk.
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann. It’s about a trauma support group for female victims from fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood, Gretel, etc. So much better than it sounds.
Things I ate:
Brookies! Incredible.
Pineapple Lemonade from Toomer’s Corner
Waterloo Pineapple Sparkling Water: I think it’s the best sparkling water I’ve ever had
