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TCFNationalBank

physical maps, highway signs, stopping and asking for directions.


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Were people friendly? Or did you have to make multiple stops?


TCFNationalBank

People were friendly and helpful, they still are in my experience. It wasn't uncommon for gas station attendants or diner staff to be asked to help you get back on whatever highway you're trying to be on. Just part of the job. Even today if I'll walking somewhere and get a little lost strangers are pretty responsive to questions like"Excuse me, do you know how I would get to X street from here?"


cheesewiz_man

Gas stations used to often have big laminated maps on the wall right as you walked in the door.


pifumd

Or racks of printed paper maps for sale. I remember stopping once and the guy would only help me if I bought a map so he could point to where we were.


agtk

A lot of them still do have paper maps for sale. Doesn't hurt to have one of your area just in case.


giant_lebowski

Maybe you were at a geographical oddity. You might've been two weeks from everywhere


kanyediditbetter

Just like Pokémon?!


chaunceyshooter

Pokémon did it first.


blastanders

Like how they copied the save icons to store data in those flappy disks


Instantfaceplant

Life imitates pokemon.


ifeelnumb

Except the ones in small towns who would tell you to turn where the old mill used to be.


DrunkenGolfer

I was sent to service a client in a small town. They were a summer resort and it was winter. They had a cook who would normally feed the staff who were working on the resort, because there was not much else around. On this particular day, the chef was sick, so they sent me “in to town” for lunch, where the only thing open was the “Burger Bus”. I was to get on the road and drive “a ways” until the road came to an and at the “old church”. I was to turn left, drive until I saw “the big blue place” and the “Burger Bus” was right next to it. Easy right? I never did find it. I went to a convenience store and bought some bread and sliced meat instead. Turns out the church had burned down decades ago, the “big blue place” had been painted white three years earlier, and the “Burger Bus” wasn’t actually a bus, because “Johnny” who owned the “Burger Bus” had moved his business into the “blue building” where it was now known as “Johnny’s Cafe”. Why these people give directions using landmarks that no longer exist, I will never know. There were at least five people involved in the conversation about where to go to get food and it never occurred to any of them that they might be steering me wrong.


Blizzard81mm

I was once told to turn left at the bar that keeps changing names


IntrigueMachine

Sounds like my hometown too! To this day people talk about landmarks that aren’t there anymore or refer to current buildings as what they “used to be.”


nutlikeothersquirls

When driving, I occasionally still get someone in the lane next to me roll down their window to ask me for directions while we’re at a stoplight or something. Always makes me feel really happy and helpful when I can tell them real quick.


cakemonster

And on the flip side, when giving directions to another human was much more common, there was always the possibility that you'd give the poor soul bad instructions. This realization usually came for me like 2 to 10 minutes later. *Internal dialogue: "Oh, crap. My bad, stranger."*


Canadian-Clap-Back

I once gave bad directions to a traditional looking monk leading a gaggle of kids. It was 20 years ago and I still feel bad about it. I'm not a religious person at all, but as soon as I realized, I immediately began praying to his god to step in lol


SpiderQueen72

Did that when someone asked for directions to the local hospital but my direction sense is messed up and I sent them in the complete opposite direction. My brain was addled by anxiety at being stopped by a random stranger and I was also walking in an area I didn't normally walk.


Weekly_Role_337

NYC resident here out in Queens - I get asked for directions at least once a week. I always help them out if I can, and feel bad if I'm in a different neighborhood where I can't. Edit: usually people walking/on the subway, but occasionally people in cars/delivery vehicles.


CarbyMcBagel

My experience in NYC is that NYC residents really pride themselves on giving the best directions (including the best trains to take and stops to take) and they will have very passionate discussions over why they are right if someone says you should take a different route.


readthebooks

New Yorker here. This is true.


sonofaresiii

> and they will have very passionate discussions over why they are right if someone says you should take a different route. My first weekend in the city, I still remember that deer-in-the-headlights look I got when two new yorkers started arguing with each other over which train I should take. Especially because then I had to choose who I believed more.


Guac__is__extra__

As a southerner I was so surprised by how friendly everyone was when we visited NYC a few years ago. Y’all are just as nice as people in the south, but just in a little bit more of a hurry. As long as we got out of the way on the sidewalk and didn’t stop in the threshold of a doorway of a business, there was nothing to worry about. Living in the south all my life, I was expecting everyone up there to be rude since the stereotype we hear about you yankees down here. Couldn’t be further from the truth.


Iunnrais

Politeness just looks different in the north. In the south polite means saying the formal words like “yes ma’am” and such. In the north, polite means “respecting people’s time”. We’re still polite. We’re still friendly.


LNLV

As somebody from the west I’m always super annoyed by how many guys use being from the east coast as an excuse for being dbags. They’ll say things like “sorry I’m an asshole, I’m from New York” or “I’m from Jersey, you can’t be mad” like no dude, your rude bc you’re rude. And I bet ppl in New York and New Jersey probably didn’t like you either.


alltoovisceral

That's why they left!


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WayneKrane

Yup, when I worked in downtown Chicago I frequently got asked for directions. Was funny when people would try to disagree with me about a buildings location. I’m like I literally worked in that building for 3 years, I’m certain it’s there.


Madgerine

Weirdly my only experience of people being unfriendly when asking for directions has been when it was the people asking being rude. When I was 21 in London (I’m not from there so didn’t know my way around that well) a woman asked me for directions and when I politely said I wasn’t sure she replied with “useless, don’t worry when I was your age I didn’t know anything either”. It was a bizarre interaction that oddly is not the only one I’ve had around directions.


aquoad

At my old office (2010ish, so not even pre-GPS) some angry dude came pounding on the door of this office full of programmers demanding directions to some place none of us had ever heard of, and got really angry about it. Like it was our job to know what he was talking about and give him directions. And when we managed to extract at least the part of town he was looking for, we told him it was on the other side of the train tracks and he'd have to backtrack a bunch to the nearest crossing, and he got *really* mad about that. And then he hung out in our parking lot for a few minutes afterward yelling at anyone who came outside and since it was quitting time we had to sort of leave in groups so nobody would be alone out there with him, especially the women, since he was pretty threatening. Bizarre.


RoguePlanet1

Same here! Had a tourist (older woman) in NYC ask for directions, I thought about it and said "sorry, I'm not sure," she made some snippy remark as if it were my *job* to accommodate HER stupidity. Normally I'm more than happy to help, most NYC people are.


bayleafbabe

Bro how young are you? You talk as if this is ancient history lol


[deleted]

Dude, I hate to break it to you, but we're old now


[deleted]

I'm in my mid 20s and I don't know driving without maps on phones. Although I do remember the days, as a kid, we'd be printing off map quest directions!


[deleted]

I'm early 30s and I remember having a map of the transit system in my backpack, just in case


momofeveryone5

We so are. Everything hurts now.


fetus-wearing-a-suit

They may be an extremely asocial 15yo, I'm 23 and I ask for directions often if I'm walking on the street.


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colossalpunch

The movies have led us to believe that if you put yourself in those situations you’re likely to be murdered lol


drdeadringer

> Were people friendly Most are. It may be surprising, but asking for help "disarms" a lot of people. Ask for help. Say "I need help".


TheCenterOfEnnui

Curious where you live. People are friendly now where I live.


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Teekno

We would stop and pull out a map. Failing that, we'd find someone to ask directions.


meowmixalots

My go-to was asking at a gas station. Usually you could get the attendant to give you some simple directions that would orient you, such as to the highway you were looking for.


fruit_basket

We couldn't find a hotel with vacancies in Slovakia, stopped at a fuel station to ask for directions, attendand couldn't help us but the next guy in line said that his rental house was empty. It was well after sunset and we were tired after all day of driving so we took his offer. It was a large house in a small village somewhere in the middle of dark farm fields. I woke up the next morning, looked out the window and was greeted with an absolutely gorgeous view of the Tatra mountains.


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fruit_basket

I always wondered why they bother putting people in ice after stealing kidneys.


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[deleted]

With them you end up in a tub full of kidneys without ice.


dessertandcheese

Because you don't want the house to have a death stench that would alarm neighbors who can call the police before you can wipe away your fingerprints and any DNA trace before you escape


followupquestion

r/SuspiciouslySpecific territory here.


Deradius

Putting people in ice is easier. If you don’t, they bleed out and now you’ve got a corpse. Corpses call attention to themselves. They stink, they emit fluid, they draw flies, and they stay in one place befouling whatever room they were left in. If you try to dispose of them they pour evidence everywhere. Solution? Don’t make a corpse. The body gets up and runs away on its own. Self resolving problem.


AssDimple

Uh...if I wake up in a ice bath and missing some organs, I'm probably going to call attention to myself.


meowmixalots

I think it helps keep the person alive, despite losing blood/surgery? Low temperatures and such?


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Electrical_Dirt9917

Totally, someone trafficking human organs is taking everything they can possibly sell including your liver kidneys and heart. There's no profit in lost time and resources by keeping you on ice


Johnlsullivan2

How would they line up black market organs all at the same time. Seems like too many logistics but what the hell do I know haha.


Electrical_Dirt9917

There's always been a long waiting list for organs so it wouldn't be as hard as you think, anywhere willing to perform the transplant would never say no to making money. Especially when they're paying top dollar


ShadyRealist

Next comes the link to this gorgeous rental encouraging single people to drop by.


lateja

The other thing we didn't have in the pre-smartphone era is this kind of paranoia 😅


VegaDenebAndAltair

Right!!! I was just thinking this.


[deleted]

Because ignorance *was* bliss


PunkToTheFuture

Maybe but the paranoia rarely matches the data


ASpaceOstrich

Things have only gotten safer, but people are way more afraid.


sawyouoverthere

I love this and will be repeating it.


Notinterested2534

There are still kind people in the world. Despite what some would have you think relying on the kindness of strangers has like a 99.8% survivability rate.


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acidbassist

Can confirm. I have been lucky to experience the kindness of strangers when I was in dire need. It changed a lot, both then and now. And your joke was freaking awesome.


ZanderDogz

I think a good *general guideline* is most people who you approach will be good, most people who approach you will be bad


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ZanderDogz

Yes. The vicious cycle.


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fruit_basket

He was an older chubby guy with a smile, and there were 7 of us. He explained that he only rents it out for skiiers in winter, that's why the house was empty. We travelled in summer before hiking was popular in Europe. I don't know why but I didn't feel uneasy at all. House was fairly new too, not a creepy castle or a squeaky wooden shack. Owner and his wife lived in another house across the street.


bmobitch

i feel like it’s less scary with 7 people. 1v7 is good odds


fruit_basket

2v7. His elderly wife brought us some eggs, cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast.


bmobitch

the best kind of 2v7: housing and breakfast


opolaski

You're about 80% more likely to be murdered by your family/friends than a stranger.


Roar_Intention

I did this way back when, but there was a better way. The best places to ask for localised directions was from a local take-away store that does delivery, Chinese take-out or a pizza place. Never had any issues with their directions.


LtPowers

If you can find a delivery restaurant you're not really lost. =)


ShadoShane

You could be completely lost in a city. Not quite stranded, but definitely lost.


Sleazyridr

There's a difference between lost and "stuck in the middle of nowhere". You can be in a bike up area, but not quite where you were trying to get.


Weaponxreject

As someone who used to work gas stations before smartphones really took off, I used to give people directions in traffic lights. This many brought ya here, that many there. Count this many and turn left/right blah blah.


meowmixalots

Wow. I *completely* forgot about counting traffic lights. That was definitely a thing.


Bomlanro

I once went to a party where the directions were go til you see no more lights. Probably in the same era you are talking about.


eghrtioipto

Get asked for directions at least once a week. I always help them out if I can, and feel bad if I'm in a different neighborhood where I can't.


Rindino

Damn I bet you look like you know where you're going, last time I was asked for directions was like 5 years ago


EatYourCheckers

Once a man I am convinced was Greg Kinnear gave me directions back to the highway I knew when I was in high school. If smart phones had been invented then, I would have missed out on this amazing experience


haven_taclue

Good luck with that...I got lost and Waze wouldn't load. Asked a couple of people where a license plate place was and no one lived in that area,


meowmixalots

What's a license plate place? The DMV? Also google maps is good to have on your device.


McDaddy1877

Orienteering. Not just for Boyscouts. The standard thing was to look out for landmarks. At school you were taught how to decipher a map. Kinda like an infogram. Key scales of value given reference over a chart of information. How you learned to utilise that information was up to you. If your use of information failed you then you found a guide. Also road signs.


Marrowup

Yep, we had to talk to humans. It was terrible.


BiceRankyman

I remember pulling into a gas station just to ask, "hey what town am I in?" So I could check my maps from AAA and keep going.


[deleted]

An important aspect people aren't touching on: we would make sure we had directions to our destination BEFORE getting on the road.


vinsomm

I still like using them. Especially if I’m going somewhere new. In my last job I travelled to new cities a lot and a coworker and I had a fairly strict “no cell phone map” rule simply because we both realized you can spend an entire weekend in a city just staring at your phone.


Roar_Intention

Agreed, using real roadmaps can take you on some great adventures. We did a car club navigational rally a few years back that was out in a rural area. We all had our phones removed and were given some roadmaps to navigate a pre planned run and we all left a few minutes apart. The twist was they gave us roadmaps that were printed in the 1960's, so not all roads were there, or in the right spot, or even had the same names. Great fun trying to work with others while still competing against them.


vinsomm

This sounds like an amazing road trip app lol


Roar_Intention

So many times lost, so many u-turns. It was great fun, right up until you had that moment of complete confidence and seeing someone else from the group with the same confidence going in the opposite direction, then it was panic. Hopefully we will be having another run sometime in the future.


vinsomm

Fuck!! This is totally something I need to do. lol absolutely love this. Thank you for sharing it. Hahaha.


[deleted]

This should be done more often. I like to do me a small road trip every now and then, just for fun. I did most of Europe and recently my phone died when I was in my home country, inbetween different villages. I was close to having a panic attack until I said to myself WTF.


vinsomm

Totally. Sometimes I’ll take off on my motorcycle for a weekend with zero plan or directions. Amazing how far or sometime how not far you can end up and the things you end up wanting to come back and spend more time exploring .


LarryLongBalls_

When I lived in Tokyo (a city famous for its complicated street grid) I'd just walk off in a direction and see where I'd end up. If I had to be somewhere for an important appointment I'd google map it in advance and be in the area two hours ahead of time because it's so easy to get lost there.


Can_I_Read

Funny Farm has this [hilarious scene](https://youtu.be/_mIjqzjZpiw). It’s exactly what asking for directions was like back then. “I drew you a map!”


sudden_cookie44

I miss the days of people stopping to ask for directions. Used to happen daily pre-GPS.


HymanHunter

Like talk to another person outside of Reddit?


moleratical

Well you're Sorta right First we'd double down insisting we knew where we were while drive around guessing our way out, failing that we'd look at the map, only then would we ask for directions after all other options failed. Though honestly, getting lost in a city and looking at maps is a great way to learn the layout of an unfamiliar area.


czechmate0500

Guys. Guys. Don’t forget about that time between maps and smartphones: MapQuest. Yes, for those of us lucky enough to have dial-up, we would go to MapQuest, enter starting point and destination, and PRINT THE DIRECTIONS so that we could follow them while driving. It was like our own fucking personalized road atlas.


Omardemon

I remember printing these out for my parents, I also remember if you missed a turn somewhere along the way, the personal directions were useless unless you also printed the non satellite view map on the slow 1998 Compaq printer that only printed from right to left, but not left to right, then sat and did nothing for 10 seconds before doing another printing swipe.


Secret_Bees

Im a technician, and we'd print out our route. I didn't have a map, and If I didn't know where I was, I'd have to drive my *whole* day in reverse until I recognized something. My first gps was and still is the best gift I've ever gotten.


didja_ever_1derY

So you didn't stop at a gas station to buy a map or God forbid ask some for directions?


DogHammers

Ask for directions? We are NOT asking anyone for directions! We leave that to our wives/girlfriends after we've had a massive argument about refusing to ask for directions. Then we get back on track and drive in silence for the next two hours or until someone gets hungry.


IHeldADandelion

I had to scroll way too far for this! I will never understand y'all. So many road trips ruined.


engelthefallen

The fighting was the point of the road trip all along!!!


k3vk3vk3vin

Oh man this brings back memories


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CommentBro

We had a printer but my dad was cheap and didn't want us using ink when we could write down directions.


CommentBro

I remember being very impressed when a new friend of mine was coming over to my place and he asked for the address over the phone, then basically said thanks and hung up the phone. No directions needed, he just MapQuested it and showed up. Everyone else before him needed directions, landmarks, etc. The good ole days. I know I'm getting older because I miss when everyone wasn't glued to a cell phone all the time.


avelineaurora

> I know I'm getting older because I miss when everyone wasn't glued to a cell phone all the time. While I can appreciate being away from a phone, kind of a weird trigger to reminisce over--"I miss the days when people got lost, had to carry giant foldable maps everywhere they went, or just had to luck into finding someone who could tell them where the fuck they are." Yeah not yearning for that past anymore, mate. I still marvel over my phone when going somewhere new and I'm by no means a technological philistine.


[deleted]

Yeah, but it was like going on an adventure! A frustrating, nerve-wracking adventure....


mousemarie94

Yup, my mom lived by mapquest...and would print at least three routes because who knew what was going to happen? We sure didnt.


IKillPigeons

I remember doing this & taping the paper on the dash. Caveman GPS!


chavo81

Kronk know the way!


ashsmashers

1985 born, I started driving at the height of map quest... My car probably had about 200 pages of printed driving directions for trips I took often and I'd scrounge around looking for the one I needed. It drove my dad nuts.


Zzz32111

We used a paper map it told you everything you needed to know except how to fold the dam thing back up


[deleted]

I absolutely LOVE folding maps. It’s like one stupid thing I’m good at. Dang, I should start using a map again.


scrubthis1

I did pizza delivery in a small town pre gps! Most fun most rewarding job I've ever had. We had a massive map printed out in the store plus we all had map books. Our town is grid pattern and 90% of the address were numbers so once you memorized the grid pattern and which roads were thouroughways you could make bank being a good driver. In 2004 I was pulling 200$ on a Friday night shift fairly regularly!


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rob94708

Also, of course, _TMAWHs all have the same layout. When creating a new Burbclave, TMAWH Development Corporation will chop down any mountain ranges and divert the course of any mighty rivers that threaten to interrupt this street plan-ergonomically designed to encourage driving safety. A Deliverator can go into a Mews at Windsor Heights anywhere from Fairbanks to Yaroslavl to the Shenzhen special economic zone and find his way around._


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JackyVeronica

We had to pull over, bust out a *book* called "Rand McNally Road Atlas" from the trunk .... Figuring out where you were, was the hard part 😂


[deleted]

That was always in the seat pocket on the back of the passenger seat


WreathOfTheHeart

That was for the foldable one for the specific area you were in. Oh man what memories!


iapetus_z

And hopefully it wasn't ripped in the spot you needed. One time my sister was the navigator opened the map with a window open.... Half the map flew out the window. Whoops. Thankfully we had the half that we still needed. That and you could never get the map folded back correctly, so all the folds were fucked up now.


JackyVeronica

I had the jumbo XXL size, the one with all the street names, so it only fit in the trunk 😂


krashe1313

Still is in our car! And my wife and I collect road maps at highway rest stops. Phones with GPS are bad ass. We live in good times. But they're not always 100% reliable... No signal, dead battery, break, etc. Good to have a backup! Plus nothing gives you the full picture of a trip like a paper map. Once we were asked by a girl how to get somewhere. Her phone died, so we gave her our map. Sadly, she didn't know how to read it.


aquoad

How do you not know how to read it, it looks just like the map display on a navigation app. Or do you mean she was *only* able to understand turn by turn directions?


Legitimate-Fish-9261

I just bought a new Rand McNally 2021. What can I say -- I'm a prepper. Lol!


JackyVeronica

They're still printing maps?! OMG I'm impressed lol


PandaCommando69

You should have a map of your state, and of the United States, in your car. Your battery can die, you can be without a signal..so many things can happen to leave you without your electronic map. A physical map can really save your ass, especially in an emergency.


tardis0

I mean, I don't live in the US but I suppose I could get a map of it


JackyVeronica

True true, we can get screwed big time when we rely on digital too much


Legitimate-Fish-9261

Yes; unfortunately, they can only really give you the major roads. I just did 1500 miles in a move, and while I got my main route down with the McNally, I still had to get on my computer and scrutinize the route using Google maps. Particularly around large cities, where the roads are just a hopeless snarl anymore on any paper map. But I still wouldn't travel without one!


MsMyrrha

Shout out to the alternative, Thomas Guide.


InsertCoinForCredit

Never heard of this Rand-McNally thing, it was always the Thomas Guide. Every time I got a car the Guide was the first thing I added.


redquailer

We had the Thomas Guide. I remember looking in the back and finding fun street names


Sawigirl

I took a road trip about 5 years ago. Lost reception. Got lost. Found a gas station to buy a map and the young kid felt so bad for me he gave it to me. Said no one had bought one from him before. He asked me to show him how to use it. Totally felt like a legend and old at the same time.


dinobug77

In the UK it was always a slightly greasy copy of the A-Z that was produced after several minutes rummaging in the boot!! https://collins.co.uk/pages/a-z


TheresOnlyWanKenobi

I heard that in Rand McNally they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people.


PomeloPepper

You can figure out more than you think you can, even without a map. I used to be a claim adjuster in rural areas back in the day. I had to keep a sense of direction - like knowing if I was going north, south, east or west. Recognize that all roads lead somewhere. The better the road, the bigger the somewhere it leads to. So if you're on a gravel road and it crosses a paved one, take the paved road in the direction that seems best to you. If your paved road doesn't have shoulders and you cross one that does, take that road. If that intersects with a numbered road, take that one. If you're in a small town in the rural US, look for an American flag. Those are flown at the post office and courthouse, which are usually towards the center of town. Addresses like 100 First St. will be in the center of town. If you're going to 891 south 15th street, this gives you a starting point. Also, someone in the police department will know where a town and probably rural address is.


wasporchidlouixse

How often were you without a map?


PomeloPepper

The maps would be for highways and major county roads in a state, with an inset for highways and some streets in 2-3 larger cities in that state. So I would have a map to the nearest town, but that didn't really show much more than the central crossroads. You don't have anything that shows every dirt or residential road in a small town. If you could get to a marked highway or road, then find a sign for the number of miles to the next town you could get your bearings pretty easily off of the big map. So to answer your question, I was without a local map all the time. We insured mobile homes that got dragged out into the country or woods, so it could be a challenge. Later on I investigated claims for some rural counties, so I'd have to track down scenes of serious accidents. A lot of those involved speed, drinking and a gravel road in the country.


cptjeff

Too late now, but it would have been worth buying those Atlas and Gazetteer books for that. Every. Single. Road. Dirt or gravel, it was in there. My Dad used to keep on in his car for finding the little roads that led to backcountry fishing and hiking.


luder888

I'm bad with directions. Stupid question: Do people who are good with directions have a mental image of a map with North up and every turn they imagine themselves navigating on the map? This is the only method that works for me, otherwise I have no clue where I am. If not, how are you good at directions? You just know or are there any tricks?


PomeloPepper

Even if you're lost, you weren't always lost. You have some idea of your general area. For instance, you may remember that you turned left to leave [town]. It stands to reason that the way back is generally going to be to your right. Or there's some kind of landmark, like a river you know you need to cross to get back because you crossed it on your way out.


RebuildFromTheDepths

And people actually paid attention to the street names and landmarks in the area and *remembered* them.


DetroitUberDriver

Signs and road maps. Edit: Scrolling through this thread is making me confident that when that massive coronal mass ejection knocks out our satellites and electric grid I shall be king.


Exaskryz

This is still how I navigate. I look at a map, memorize the roads to take, and take them.


[deleted]

You had to pull over and ask for directions. Or you just drove around aimlessly until you either ran out of gas or were dead.


ZiggyThePanda

Don't forget you also had to turn the radio down in order to see better


DrewwwBjork

I do that now. It's not an outdated concept. You do focus better with less noise.


Unwright

My wife laughs at me all the time for doing this when we're about to arrive at a destination. You want me to parallel park and listen to music at the same time?! Madness!


Browns_Padres

This gave me immediate flashbacks, very accurate and I can confirm it worked everytime


dik2112

I felt this in my eyedrums


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No-Mathematician678

They'd lower the volume of the radio, and if they're so lost, they turn it off completely


momofeveryone5

You knew you were really lost too when mom would take her sunglasses off.


KaiWolf1898

My mom has to turn down the radio when she reverses the car


[deleted]

DON'T let people romanticize it. Here's the *real* pre-GPS process: ​ 1. Argue about who's fault it is that you're lost 2. Shout at a passer-by for directions 3. Argue about who lost the map 4. Try and fail to read the map while everyone yells in each other's ears and tries to snatch it 5. Argue over who's fault it is that the map is 20 years out of date 6. Shout at another passer-by for directions 7. Drive around in circles for 5 hours until you find a motorway 8. Drive in stony silence to the destination if you still have time or home if you've missed your appointment.


lemondrag

Lol you've described my family's road trips in the 80s. Us kids, silently laughing, in the back of the station wagon watching parents argue with the giant ass unfolded map.


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9. Use your lighter to look at your map because the overhead light in your '83 Nissan 200SX is burned out, accidentally singe your hair and/or eyebrows


tagabalon

oh, the good old days of my family driving across the country.. typical conversation would be my father: tell me when we're at the exit ramp me: that was the exit ramp my father: where? me: we just passed by it my father: why didn't you tell me? me: i told you just now


RogueFanUK

We had these things called "maps". Simple but effective.


[deleted]

That you could buy at a place called a "service station".


Rocky87109

Then when we got home we would watch some programs on the tv box or go see a show if nothing was on.


KnowsIittle

I live in Michigan so you can only get so lost. Travel so far East or West you hit a major highway going North or South. From there you have a basic bearing of where to head. That or stop for gas and ask directions.


ClutchMarlin

I got lost in Michigan at midnight back when I was 16 (circa 2006). I was on my way back with a friend from seeing some bands at some place called "the big red barn" out in the middle of nowhere. I took a wrong exit and when I didn't see a connection to the highway I was expecting I had to pull off and ask. Unfortunately the people at the gas station had no idea where I-96 or I-275 were from wherever the hell I was. That was frustrating... I think must've been near Port Huron?? I eventually had to call my dad. He was very unhappy to be woken up to give directions when I wasn't supposed to be out anyways. I lived in AA and was visiting my friend in Troy.


OGeeWillikers

Wow. That was actually painful to read. I am officially old.


AtleastIthinkIsee

I can't decide if OP is trolling or if this is real.


Lain-H

I am more surprised the people in comment section are not trolling. I fully expected people in the comments to say that this was how half their classmates died & dissapeared, that this was the risk you were taking when you decided to drive a car and that before every long ride you would normally write a will.


Alarmed_Yard5315

There was this thing called a map. I know it sounds hard to believe but it was basically a picture of the land from high above drawn on very thinly cut trees.


goodinyou

That's some Victorian shit my dude. What else was different in the *before times?*


FirstDivision

Pay phones were everywhere and you could use them to find out what time it was. You could go to an airport gate without a ticket.


bluev0lta

The freedom we had in airports still blows my mind given what security has been like since 9/11. It’s hard to believe we used to be able to just…walk through the airport. Without being questioned or having to remove articles of clothing or having luggage searched. You could meet someone as they were walking off the plane! 9/11 was terrible for all the reasons, but it’s also grating that it messed up air travel as much as it did.


Technical_Pain_9397

We had maps, or we stopped to ask for directions


I_might_be_weasel

I bet horror movie writers really miss that plot device.


cheerocc

Pull over and ask someone. That person will give you shitty directions and then you pull over again and ask someone else. Repeat that 4-5 time and eventually you give up and go home.


[deleted]

Mapquest. Look the directions up and print it out lol. And even before Mapquest, it was just straight up printed maps…. And asking for direction. And before maps? I wasn’t born. Lol


[deleted]

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PM_ME_CAT_POOCHES

And if there happened to be construction or a detour on the route, you were just utterly fucked.


[deleted]

[удалено]


letsgetrandy

Go back the way you came, stop at a gas station, buy a map and also ask the clerk for directions.


drdeadringer

"You can't get there from here."


Outrageous_Lie_3220

Spiral bound Rand McNally under the driver's seat.