Eldergays, what did you do before GPS?

I used a sextant and several compasses, but that was only to get to the local shops. Anything further afield needed telescopes, the sacrifice of a virgin goat and good luck.

Map reading and getting lost. It was common to have an atlas or city maps in a car, no? I'm sure many of us have experience with this. I absolutely roadtripped cross country with printed triptiks from AAA and an attention to highway signs.

R2 here, I'd like to retract my comment and direct people to R1.

Oh honey, I always got lost. I had maps, asked people for directions, even phoned a friend. But, I ALWAYS ended up on the wrong side of town. I have seen more slums than I care to imagine. I first used GPS in 2010 and praised the Lord above. Never a map again!

You’d call the friend you were visiting for directions. Some friends replied with only the most basic turn left, turn right instructions and others would give too many details.

A common safeguard was something like, “If you cross into Canada you’ve gone too far.”

Then came MapQuest.

I had a number of 14" by 18" atlases (still have one) with a page or two for each state. Back when I belonged to HOG (Harley Owners Group), they sent an atlas every year with each states' roads and the location of every Harley shop in case your bike should break down. I had bunches of the kind of maps you unfold that you can somehow never fold back together properly; I still have a few of those, including one of the county I live in now. It came from a realtor's office so it shows even the obscure roads.

It was lots of fun to plan out a route this way! Of course, I love to plan my routes on the internet as well. I write down the route numbers, the way to turn, where to stop for gas, and where to look for a hotel/motel for the night. Of course, I have a cell phone holder on my handlebar, but it's hard to look at a cell phone when you're riding, and sometimes it rains, and you can't have your cell phone exposed to the elements. So I have a magnetic case on my gas tank into which I put my prepared directions.

Newer Harleys have a screen with GPS, which I spurn. I also do not ride with music playing. I'm a hard core, old school biker. That stuff is for poseurs.

AAA gave away a lot of trip tickets. They used a lot of trees that way.

Present hole at the closest gas station with the hunkiest clerks.

My late husband loved to drive and loved maps. He would make intricate routes which I had to follow and shout out to him from the passenger seat . Unfortunately I had no love for maps and no sense of direction so we had lots of arguments.

I used a Thomas Guide that was dog-eared and full of Post-it notes to get me through the LA-Orange County area and AAA maps for wider travel. In those days, you really had to plan out your path and jot down notes lest you wind up in a dangerous area. If I lost my way, I'd head to the nearest gas station and ask for directions.

Then, in the early internet days, I'd print out directions from Mapquest.

Thomas Guide

MapQuest if I needed point to point directions.

AAA TripTik for vacations.

Always, and still do, keep a map in the car.

AAA maps and pouch.

It was a major pain in the ass - but we didn't know any different, that's just how it was.

Besides having detailed instructions spoken to you, the other benefit is having the TRAFFIC integrated into the recommended route. Listening to traffic reports - there used to be stations JUST for traffic updates - was relatively useless. It just told you how bad it was going to be on your route - no other options.

When I first used Google maps or Wayze, I was like - no way, that's not faster. It always was.

Even when you're stuck in traffic and think - maybe I should just go down this side street - Google will tell you whether you should or not - and many times it's worse and you're better off to stay where you are.

Knowing you're on the correct route AND the fastest route is an unbelievable amount of peace of mind - even if you're stuck in traffic. Plus having an estimated arrival time is awesome - it let's you know if you need to call people because you WILL be late in 30 minutes.

And thankfully, Google maps is 98% accurate for me.

Another vote for Thomas Bros and AAA TripTiks.

I live in the NYC metro area I had folding paper maps of NY, NJ PA and CT in the glovebox which never held any gloves. Plus a map of New England for occasional trips up to Ptown.

I got lost often and swore a lot.

Gen X who's explained this to quite a few Gen Zers - we kept a road atlas in our car. We had to pull over to the side of the road or into a parking lot and look at the atlas, and half the time the fucking street/route you were looking for wasn't in the damn thing. Then you had to find a gas station and ask for directions. It was a HUGE pain in the ass. You'd get lost all the time. GPS is one of the greatest things ever invented.

I had a little briefcase thing full of atlases and maps. You really needed the closeup detail, to get around the wackiness that is metro Boston.

I learned to drive in the mid 80s, as a teen.

I would also keep a Rand McNally Road Atlas in the car, though seldom used it. They can still be purchased at Office Depot/Max.

I wrote down my directions.

Refolding the map to put it back in the glove compartment was the hardest part.

Hagstrom maps with laminated pages. Durable, user friendly, and cost a fortune. Perpetual free drinks and blow jobs to the inventor(s) of GPS.

[quote]AAA gave away a lot of trip tickets.

TripTiks.

You can create your own TripTik online now if you're a member. I've been planning a long driving trip through the five states I've never been to and it's a handy tool.

I love old road maps. I collected a lot of them (via eBay purchases.) Mostly gas station giveaways from the '40s onward. Fun to look if you're a map nerd like me.

People used their brains before GPS. Searching for something on a map stimulated the brain and increased intelligence.

r26 it was an inconvenient pain in the ass, esp. if you were in a time crunch. I don't miss those days at all. Thank god for GPS.

[quote]Oh honey, I always got lost. I had maps, asked people for directions, even phoned a friend. But, I ALWAYS ended up on the wrong side of town. I have seen more slums than I care to imagine.

Many years ago, before GPS and Smartphones, a friend and I were returning a rental car to the Newark airport and got lost in Newark, NJ at 11:00 at night. We drove around Newark for over an hour until we found the airport. I've been in some bad neighborhoods in my life and never really got scared, but that night in Newark I was truly frightened. I really thought something was going to happen to us.

I would ask for directions or look at a map.

You are 39, OP?

Thomas Bros maps are still being published. I bought one a year ago or so for fun. Not cheap, but it’s a great coffee table book!

Millennial. As a kid, I was often the GPS. Using maps/road atlas and my own good sense of navigation, I would tell whoever was driving what exits and roads to take to get us to the destination as quickly as possible. You also had to

Read maps. I’m still very good at reading them

Did we get into more accidents back then, when futzing with folded pieces of paper while attempting to drive?

I love maps and I love reading them. It really stimulated my brain.

I hate it when my GPS /iPhone changes the orientation (North is UP!!)

We also mapped out the trip beforehand and memorized it as much as we could. Again, good for your brain.

"Head west, then, turn left!"

Fuck you Google Lady.

I still don't have it. And I don't have a printer anymore. So when I have a destination for yard sales, etc. I just draw a map on paper using Google.

Thomas Guides, Maps - get from AAA or gas station; or ask for directions.

r38 Don't you have a phone?

R39 how was my rotary wall phone, that I dialed with a pencil going to help me get where i needed to in the car?

R28 - I remember the press stories of tourists getting lost in dangerous areas of Miami and a few were killed. Some of them were targeted because you could visibly tell it was a rental car.

They made some changes to car identification after that - rental cars used to have brand stickers. Not anymore - they have a fake car dealership name now.

That was almost 30 years ago, but still. Getting lost in a bad neighborhood - and remember NO PHONE! That wasn't a joke. You were prey.

r41 I remember those stories about Miami, it was usually foreign tourists IIRC. I seriously thought my friend and I were going to get into trouble that night in Newark - scary shit. There are places in this country that look like war zones.

I hated TripTiks for their linearity and for showing nothing but the route. It was the things off route, at the edges of a proper map that caught my eye: a town that by its streets was clearly old and maybe worth exploring. But not the sprawl of secondary towns and suburbs that flanked an interstate that bisected a city into good and bad halves.

I was a bound atlas man, with fold-out maps for the cities that were my destination. A city of any size would always have a good map store, a place that had been in the same location for 60 years or more, usually with globes and guidebooks, and other travel paraphernalia. If you were lucky, you could find a well annotated bird's-eye view map of a larger city and locate some zones of architectural interest.

I still like maps, but now seriously antique ones of favorite cities showing their unique forms before sprawl set in. For practical purposes, I look online and/or ask the hotel front desk for a map.

R42 - yep foreign tourists just trying to get to their hotel by the beach, not knowing there's several hoods very close by or that you have to drive through to get there.

Happened to me actually - 1996 on business - late night arrival, got this 1 pager bullshit rental car map and went the wrong direction on the highway. I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I got lost several times on that trip actually. Bought a Rand McNally atlas and kept it with me for the rest of bus travel.

Enjoying this thread. As a kid, I loved maps, atlases and almanacs so much that I'd ask for for the lastest version at Christmas. Pre-internet, you could call a state's tourism board and ask for one. We never left the house without the big Rand McNally Road Atlases and foldable map of every state we would pass through on the trip. I still have them in storage.

My father appointed me navigator from a young age. always loved maps. gazing st them was a rainy day pastime.

I remember lots of pounding my fist at the steering wheel, cursing my zero sense of direction. After my mother died, one of my sisters told me she once said I could get lost in our own subdivision.

do you travel with younger people using GPS and find they have no sense of where the fuck they are?

if the GPS fails you could end up in Siberia

Honey in the days of maps you still could end up in fucking Siberia, as did I and many others back then. It's not a generational thing.

I agree R49

But at least with a map you knew that maybe you were in the state of Missouri?

Before GPS I think there was Mapquest. Before Mapquest, there were maps. You also have to remember that before the internet, and hotels having a website, it wasn't that easy to find out a lot about where you were going (one reason star ratings were important, I guess). People called or even (before my time) wired ahead for rooms. Many times you called or even wrote a hotel, motel, or campground, asking for directions. My parents didn't belong to AAA and I have no idea what TripTiks are. Still, we managed to get there. There were also guidebooks, of course. Before there were superhighways, travel was more of an adventure. Even in the 70s when my parents and I went to California from New England, the superhighways weren't all completed.

Just follow the star.

^By the way, gas stations usually had free maps, at least until the 70s. I still have a couple of Mobil Travel Maps from that trip.

Sometimes, if you weren't going super far, you just took off and found your way using road signs. If you got lost, you did ask directions, at a gas station, grocery store, or somewhere else. To be honest, I don't always use GPs even today. It's good when you really need it, but it can lead you on some convoluted and ridiculous routes. (Down dirt roads, narrow lanes, even dark alleys.)

there are members of my family who have NO sense of direction.

it is mind boggling...as though it is a genetic defect.

Memorized directions

R54 This has been studied for a while and some people (and many animals) do have more of an innate sense of direction.

My father sometimes used to do a test drive, if he or one of us had to go somewhere in the city he was unfamiliar with, for an important appointment. Maybe a week before, he's do a trial run.

*he'd

You would stop at a Stuckey's and ask for directions. And get a pecan log to snack on in the car.

Back in the 90s the Thomas Guide was madatory if you moved to LA from Fly over Stan.

"Fly over Stan"

What map app do you like? My husband always used Google Maps until I proved to him that Apple Maps is easier to follow.

........

Apple is a better interface. But Google is better for looking places up to then set as the destination. I go back and forth.

Waze is just an absolute mess of busy nonsense on the screen that feels like sensory overload.

I still use maps, though now they're plotted through Google Maps and printed ahead of time rather than bought in gas stations.

I promised myself I would get GPS with my next new car, but the current one is still going strong at 20 years old.

r34 No, we didn't. We'd read the map beforehand (not while driving), and memorize "West off freeway at Santa Monica, right on Orange, left on Hawthorn," and if anything went awry we'd pull over and re-read the map.

OP - you want to hear an even scarier story?

Cars used to break down a lot more in the 70s and 80s. You'd routinely see people on the side of the road with their hood up - on the highways or side streets. Cars were crap quality.

So - your car could breakdown in the middle of an area (perhaps dangerous) you didn't know, with no phone and no idea which direction to go. No friends or family knew where you were.

Sleep tight. Stay tuned for more Eldergay spooky tales.

r67 I'm old enough to remember those days and it's scary to think about. Things have improved so much in certain ways, I have no nostalgia for a number of things from the past.

My grandmother was telling me about Mapquest the other day. Sounds complicated.

Was the Thomas Guide just a Southern California thing, or was it nationwide?

You started by looking up the name of your street in the index. It would say something like "Tuckahoe Street — 68, B-7." Then you'd turn to page 68 and locate the B column and the 7 row.

It mostly worked fine unless it was something like First Street, which could have dozens of entries based on the various municipalities of Southern California.

Mapquest was also a pain in the ass. You'd have the damn printout in one hand, trying to read it while you were driving, and your other hand on the steering wheel. You'd keep looking back and forth.

Fought constantly with my husband. If it weren't for GPS we'd be divorced today.

R67 And California installed Callboxes on every freeway because of that. And yet - they are still there and we all still pay for them to be answered and maintained today!

I looked at a map.

I used to drive a taxi. Arrow Road Guide.

I think we had Rand-McNally guides.

R70 Most street guides of any city are the same. Even the small town I grew up in had one of those in the back of the town telephone book.

R27 My elderly mother was told by her doctor to do crossword puzzles and searching for addresses on good old fashion maps in order to slow down her cognitive decline. Enjoy your GPS, iphones and tablets but all this technology is frying your brain. You'll eventually have to go back to what you used to do in the 70s and 80s if you want a healthy brain in your 70s and 80s.

I was using GPS on my iPhone until I saw that CarPlay screens could be had for as little as $100 these days, so I bought one. Best investment I ever made for my old car. What a difference to have directions read over my car speakers rather than the phone itself. And I like the natural language improvements: "Go past these lights and make a left at the next set ... Use the left two lanes to turn left onto Washington Avenue."

I used fold-out maps and, eventually, large regional booklets. I love my Garmin. I have her programmed to speak in an English accent. My Mom called her 'Twiggy'.

I still don't use GPS. If I'm going somewhere unfamiliar I check google maps first. I have a good sense of direction, easily remember where I've been before, and once I look at a map, I remember how to get there.

Outside of my familiar region I use maps. I like maps and the overview I get of my location as it relates to the surrounding areas.

I'm not opposed to GPS, definitely see the benefits, but my car doesn't have it and I haven't tried it with my phone.

Google Maps and my partner have ruined my once good sense of direction, R81. I now rely on them and find myself a bit stupid now and again, having to look at where my partner is headed or to produce my mobile. Had I studied a map of any sort for a few moments I would have found myself turned around.

Recently though, I was in a large city I had not visited in 30 years and surprised my partner many times by definitively knowing how to get from about, even in fairly complicated routes of many turns. Knowing that a restaurant we wanted to visit was near a particular fountain or plaza or some minor landmark, I could arrive there without missteps. 30-some years ago, pre-Google, I had to devote some time each night to plotting a plan for the next days, consulting and plan and correlating that with hours, etc. to make a sort of big map in my mind. When earned by a bit of study or experience and attention, that sort of visual memory stays with me, as well as a sense of cardinal direction. I can do it if I try, even a little. But lazily following along my partner or Google I sometimes feel quite stupid when I forget the path back, or whether to turn this way or that.

[quote]Enjoy your GPS, iphones and tablets but all this technology is frying your brain.

Oh just shut the fuck up. Seriously, just shut the fuck up and crawl back into your filthy fucking hovel.

The other benefit of Google Maps is the street view. I like to know what I'm looking for and what it looks like before I get there. Particularly parking options.

For all the tech that has been developed, this tool has been the most profound time-saving and 'make your life easier' app I can think of. And it's free. (Yes, I know they track where you go, but my life isn't THAT interesting). Fair trade-off - but I would even pay for it.

I also like the timeline where you can go back in your history to places you've visited before on vacations and other trips. I don't use it as much, but it's nice to have.

I could look at maps all day -- paper maps (a friend taught me the trick to folding them correctly), atlases, London's A To Z(ed) (even though haven't lived there since the late 70s), etc. Like R81, I also have a good sense of direction (and am mystified by people who don't; it is not. that. hard!). That said, as I am often driving alone I do use Google Maps on my phone when I'm going someplace I haven't been before so I don't have to read a paper map and drive at the same time. (And years ago I finally got a phone holder that's inserted in my car's CD drive so I don't have to drive with my phone on my thigh, which was even more of a juggling act when I drove a standard.) Also, I have no shame as a man in pulling over and asking for directions.

Pre-GPS, I used to write up the directions from the airport to my place -- on one sheet of paper, not overly detailed, in largish print -- so if I had friends visiting from out of town I could mail/fax/email it to them ahead of time so they wouldn't have to wrestle with maps or the crap directions from a car-rental agent to get to my apartment. When I lived in Cambridge, MA, my friends were *very* appreciative. I had a second version with directions from my place to the airport and third for visitors driving from, say, New York City or wherever that I could adapt. I earned lots of Good Karma points, and not a few free drinks, with those directions.

I wish GPS could be programmed in Bette Davis's voice.

A pic of a Thomas guide does not convey what a pain in the ass it was. That thing was as thick as a book. When I first moved to LA, one of the first things everyone said you had to have in your car. This is what it was like:

I remember traveling internationally before this tech - you really had to have some skills to navigate a foreign country with no maps and no knowledge of the language.

Now with Google Maps, online reservations, Google translate - going anywhere is 1000x easier and less stressful.

Even finding gay bars in other cities was an event - of course there were gay guides once you got into a bar, but there was a time when many gay bars didn't have big signs and the glass was all darkened.

R88, what you are talking about is Damron Guide. The Thomas Guide of Gay Bars / Bath Houses / Crusing Spots.

The other benefit of Google Maps is the street view. I like to know what I'm looking for and what it looks like before I get there. Particularly parking options.

For all the tech that has been developed, this tool has been the most profound time-saving and 'make your life easier' app I can think of.

Agreed, Ri4. Google Maps is a god-damned miracle for me. I use it to choose among possible hotel locations, to check out odd map features to see if they are worth exploring, to select walking routes, or to find a restaurant.

I use it almost every day in my real estate obsession, checking out the street views and exploring surroundings for houses for sale. A bit of street view scouting and many houses be dismissed or deemed interesting straight away because of what shows up in the immediate vicinity. I can usually triangulate a house where only a vague location is given and decide if it's worth following through on or if it's on a street or section of a neighborhood that's ugly or a bit rough looking.

Street view is the true innovation. But some older people think it's perpetual and invasive.

Some people actually contact Google and are able to have the street view of their house blurred out. Every time I stumble on that my first though is Drug House. Sure enough, there are usually a high number of expensive cars parked near by that do NOT match the demographics of that neighborhood.

Funny r92! My friends and I have been saying the same thing for years. People who want their houses blurred out are usually getting up to some shit.

AAA Trip-Tiks up and down the east coast bringing the Fleetwood/Town Car/98 Regency/Volvo down to Florida and back so Mom could fly and skip the ride. We’d open up the house and then flew home. Twice a year every year for a decade.

R94 - I would have put her ass on the Florida car train and said call me when you get there!

It's been active since 1971.

R92 I would say that, but I have gotten at least a dozen creepy as fuck emails that basically somehow combed my name and address and put together a threatening letter complete with pictures of my house. Demanding money, etc.

Really freaked me out the first time I got one of these. I kind of get not wanting pics of my house out there.

R96 - never heard of that. But yeah - I was tired of having my name, age, cell number and addresses easily available on the internet. I particularly didn't like my name and age coming up on the first page when I was applying for jobs.

I used a service called DeleteMe and it's all gone now. Took a couple of months - but I like that nobody sees anything about me but my LinkedIn when they search my name.

You bitches almost made me buy a Thomas guide - but it’s $45 on Amazon, that’s too much.

What's best for walking the streets of London? I find that Google Maps isn't so great over there but it is admittedly challenging with the lack of street signage and the way streets suddenly change names.

Forgive me if this has already been covered upthread; I haven't read all the posts.

I was good at maps. The key is to keep track of where you are at all times by reference to the map. Periodically confirm that what the map shows is just ahead of you is in fact what you see.

If you lose track of where you are on the map and only look at the map when you are lost, your odds of remaining lost are much higher.

When relying on directions given by another person, you were dependent on how well they advised you about potential mistakes. Once you made a wrong turn or missed a turn you had to find your way back to the original route to get back on track.

I’ve seen reference to AAA Triptiks, but I’m not sure anyone has shown what they were (and apparently ARE!) You’d call AAA before a long road trip and tell them where you were going and they’d map out your route for you in a handy booklet. You’d flip each page where you got to the end of the route on that page and the next page would be the continuation.

Oops. Wrong link

One last try

[quote]What's best for walking the streets of London?

Lee Ho Fook's restaurant guide.

I still keep a huge book of maps in my trunk that I replace with a new one every 3 years. I'm now old and don't drive much anymore, at least to places I don't know how to easily get there, but that big book of maps gives me comfort.

The New Yorker’s way to drive to Chicago:

Get a cab going uptown, cross the George Washington Bridge, drive 700 miles west and then ask someone.

[quote] Some people actually contact Google and are able to have the street view of their house blurred out. Every time I stumble on that my first though is Drug House. Sure enough, there are usually a high number of expensive cars parked near by that do NOT match the demographics of that neighborhood.

The house I grew up in is blurred out on Google but it's not a drug house (or Drug House). Your theory seemas a bit paranoid.

[quote]What's best for walking the streets of London?

Hire a streetwalker.

R106 - that's actually pretty accurate. But it's 800 miles. 12 hours - somehow NY and Chicago feel further apart in distance than that, but I've done it and it isn't.