Social Memory: the Director of Our Individual Memory

My Stampede, Our Stampede

The Stampede Park was created to sustain the heritage of the Old West. The park has been the official site for the yearly competition, the Calgary Stampede that “celebrate[s] the romance and culture of the disappearing Old West” for over 100 years (Calgary Stampede, n.d.). Through the reconstruction and maintenance of the past, a social memory developed on the Calgary Stampede as a representation of the ‘Old West’, founded on the Stampede Park grounds.

The Calgary Stampede is the greatest outdoor show on Earth. It's full of rodeo events, food trucks and rides. And the most important thing, it's in the summer... so there is no snow on the ground.

The Story

My first time experience at the Calgary Stampede is different than most Calgarians' experiences. I knew about the Calgary Stampede, I knew where it was, how to get there, and I knew what I had to wear. Most Calgarians have their first experience as children, with their families, and planned events. However, I wanted to go on my own to see what it was and make experiences in my own way. I wanted to learn it in my own way. My first time was late into my teens, and I went with friends, not family.

A friend from abroad was visiting, and I just knew I had to take her to the Calgary Stampede. I decided it was a chance for us both to experience our first time at the Stampede together.

I made sure we both had cowboy boots, plaid shirts, and a cowboy hat. We had to suit the theme of the Stampede. It’s really an expectation. You’re expected to look the part, just as you expect everyone else to look their part as well.

Gates opened at noon, we were up bright and early to be there in time. We had the whole day, from noon to midnight, to do whatever we wanted. Getting there is an adventure in itself. During those ten days, you get on the train and you know what everyone is doing. Everyone is dressed up, all headed in the same direction, to the same place. We were travelling by ourselves, so we just joined and followed the masses. And it was exciting because we were allowed to do it on our own.

The whole city adapts the culture of the Stampede. At work I have to dress up for those ten days, and I know a lot of other places that do it as well. We share the experience of the Calgary Stampede with everyone even when we are not at the Stampede.

The Calgary Stampede, is a large part of social memory, and is “understood right away… in its basic significance” (Casey, 2004). Although she states that she experienced the Calgary Stampede in her own way, she already had a basic understanding of the expectations of herself and of others that were sharing the experience with her. There is an underlying expectation, that although everyone is there own individual, that the shared experience is the same for everyone. This shared experience, and the expectation, is created by the social memory of the Calgary Stampede. The Stampede Park serves as grounds for “versions of the past” to be reconstructed and “mediated to [a] wider audience” (Neiger, 2011). This shared experience then continues to reconstruct the social memory every year.

A lot of what I am saying can be said by anyone who goes to the Stampede, but some of my personal experiences can be meaningless to someone else. I have a picture from that first time. My friend and her boyfriend are kissing under the fireworks on the grounds, surrounding by all of our group. We’re in our plaid outfits, cowboy boots on, totally into the moment. That defines the Calgary Stampede for me. That is what I made it.

She mentioned to me later that this image had been put onto Facebook. It was then that I decided that the image had become meaningful for Calgary as a whole because it represented the Calgary Stampede and the Stampede Park. The moment it was shared to the world, it became part of the social memory. It then became meaningful for everyone, because it was shared, and represents the idea of the Calgary Stampede.

The Media

Right before the Stampede starts, you hear a constant theme of the locals saying they are going to stay away from it this year. Even I say it. But it doesn't matter if you try to stay away, you always end up down there at the grounds anyways. In the end, you pretty much have to go to the Calgary Stampede. I've gone every year since that first year.

It's all over the media. But only a couple weeks beforehand. And it really makes you want to go. The new fried food, the new concerts, the new events. And then it all goes silent, you do not hear about it at all for the rest of the year. Until the next summer of course.

We took a lot of selfies and pictures. The whole experience was new and we wanted to document the whole thing. Oh, and we wanted to show off our whole Stampede get up we were wearing.

Digital media, specifically social media, has pushed social memory to new heights. Through a vast collection of personal stories that are put onto social media, social memory becomes more developed and spread throughout a community. Before, the Calgary Stampede used posters to spread the word, and entice people. Now, the Calgary Stampede is spread by its participants through social media. There is also the pressure, to ‘show off’ what you have done to the rest of the world. Social memory becomes more concrete and ingrained within a community through social media, and in our digital era, in general.

This had led me to believe that through social media, we are creating our own archives. We are creating a collection of images, videos, and written journals that can be retrieved at a later time. The difference is that we, as individuals, have control over our personal archives compared to the official archives. Social memory is now being created in different ways, and on different mediums. The Stampede Park carries the tradition and memory of the Western heritage, but our digital life enables this memory of the heritage to become more mediated and disseminated within society.

The Culture

Geographically, this is what I am surrounded by, it impacts my life and makes me who I am. I definitely come from a western heritage. When I put my cowboy boots on, I call myself country. During the Calgary Stampede that it is who I am.

Calgary itself is great, but when you venture into the outer, surrounding areas, you can easily see the farm culture that you can't find in the city. Growing outside the city, I saw it more, even if I wasn’t completely part of it. I grew up in Okotoks. It was there I have my first memory of the Stampede. They were having a Stampede breakfast in town. I went with my family. I didn't understand it at the time, but I got free pancakes and there were ponies to ride. The free Stampede breakfasts are really popular. They bring the community together, but you really have to get up early, cause its served around eight am.

Okotoks is a city about 20 minutes south of Calgary. The Calgary Stampede Park is a place of memory held together by “geographical proximity… [and] by engagement in a common project” (Casey, 2004). The Calgary Stampede is a “cultural practice of social memory” that gives the Stampede Park meaning and brings everyone together under this one meaning. (Till, 2005).

The Stampede Park, has become a place that “circulate[s] in the popular imagination” of the Calgary and surrounding communities (Till, 2005). Even for those people who have not experienced the events or the site itself, have, rather experienced the past and the heritage through others’ recollections and reconstructions. She grew up in the close area, so the Stampede carries memories that are a foundation for how she grows up. Even though she had not gone to the Stampede till she was older, she already had a full awareness and appreciation for what it represented for her.

Without the Calgary Stampede, Calgary would still be who it is. Calgary is the country culture. The stampede is just a yearly celebration. There is still all the themed bars and clubs. I can always find a place to two-step, country swing or line dance, anytime throughout the year. Even our football team, the Calgary Stampeders, is themed after our culture!

The Forgotten

An interesting moment in my interview with her, was that in the beginning she would call the concept of Calgary’s heritage the ‘cowboy culture’ or the ‘country culture’. I used the concept as the “Western heritage” in our discussion. Although the Stampede Park claims they represent the Western heritage, through her recollection, I was able to see that in social memory it represents more of a cowboy culture.

I don't know much about the native heritage, and I don't know many people who would know a lot about it.

Through my research, and my knowledge, of Calgary, I knew there was a strong Native American background. However, she did not mention them once, so I questioned her. It is interesting that although the Calgary Stampede holds an entire section for their Native heritage that is was lost behind the rest of the ‘country, cowboy culture’.

Neiger (2011) states that collective memory relies on social groups developing memories of its past; memories that are unique enough “to preserve [their] self-image and pass on to future generations”. The archives are only one representation of the past, as her story is only one representation of the present. Social memory represents only one “version of the past” (Neiger, 2011). The archives carried very little images that represented the Native American background in direct association with the Stampede Park. The memory of the Stampede Park has influenced the interpretation of the Western heritage in the present. The social memory carries only the representation of the ‘cowboy culture’. Through an examination of her individual memory, it is evident that entirety of the Western heritage is not being fully represented through the Stampede Park.

The Memory of Place

I’m proud to say that the Calgary Stampede is an event where I grew up. I share that name with others, and they’ve probably heard about it.

It's an excuse for everyone to celebrate. The same way a birthday brings everyone together, the Calgary Stampede brings everyone together to celebrate.

What do we celebrate? We celebrate the cowboy culture, the country culture. The Calgary Stampede really represents the idea of our Western heritage; it celebrates it.

The Western heritage of Calgary is not only celebrated by its people through the place, but the Stampede Park, itself celebrates the idea of Calgary’s heritage. Places are “moments of… experience that create and mediate social spaces and temporalities” (Till, 2005). Through place-making practices, such as the yearly rodeo, Calgary Stampede, the Stampede Park has evolved to hold actually meaning in its grounds.

The Stampede Park, as a place of memory, “[embodies]… [the Calgary] imagined in the past and… imagined today” (Till, 2005). The ties between the past and the present are created through social memory. Her personal recollection is “saturated with social and collective aspects” (Casey, 2004). Her story is a powerful demonstration of how social memory has guided her individual experience of the Calgary Stampede. She had trouble putting together an actually chronological story. She discusses more the way of the Calgary Stampede, more than her actually perception of what happened during her time there. Social memory was more prominent in her recollection than individual memory was. The many reconstructions of the past have influenced how she experiences the Calgary Stampede in the present. When the interview was initially started, it took a lot of questioning and prodding for her to open up and explain everything. But how do you explain something that you just know?

References

Casey, E. S. (2004). Public memory in place and time. In K. R. Phillips (Ed.). Framing public memory (pp. 17-44). Tuscaloosa, Al: University of Alabama Press.

Calgary Stampede (n.d.). Stampede history. Retrieved from http://corporate.calgarystampede.com/about/stampede-history/'

Calgary Stampede. (n.d.). Stampede Posters, Historical Photos, and Artifacts. Heritage Collections. Retrieved from http://www.calgarystampede.com/heritage/collections?search=

Glenbow Museum. (n.d.). Calgary Exhibition and Stampede fonds. Retrieved from http://www.glenbow.org/collections/search/findingAids/archhtm/stampede.cfm

Neiger, M., Meyers, O., & Zandberg, E. (2011). On Media Memory: Editors' Introduction. In Neiger, Meyers, & Zandberg (Eds.), On Media Memory: Collective memory in a new media age, pp. 1-26.

Till, K. (2005). Hauntings, memory, place. In The new Berlin memory, politics, place (pp. 5-28). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.