Does Your Brain Work This Way?

Some years back, I mentioned the way I remember the spelling of words to someone and they indicated that their brain doesn't remember words this way, and they gave me a look somewhere between envy and horror.

When I think of the word Missouri, I see a torrent of water passing through an imagined Gate of the Mountains (video) and a North American rivers map with the letters M-i-s-s-o-u-r-i superimposed on the image as though typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter in a Times-Roman font with a carbon film ribbon.  I have similar images for most other non-abstract nouns and verbs.  Many I recognize from either real life ("Mississippi" brings up images of seeing it from New Orleans or crossing it on a bridge during a 1967 vacation).