GPS & Maps - Stories from the Class of 1964

Joe and I have been using a GPS for a number of years and have had some adventures and misadventures with it. Right before my recent trip to Ohio and Michigan I learned how to use Siri with Apple Maps and Google Maps on my phone. I had varying amounts of success with voice navigation on my travels. I like old-fashioned paper maps and usually have one on hand for a trip to unfamiliar territory. I also print out directions from MapQuest, just in case the GPS doesn't work. I like to be prepared. 

My generation started with manual typewriters. We are now using computers, smartphones, GPS, and all sorts of devices that didn’t even exist when we graduated from high school. I joined a few of my classmates for lunch on the weekend of of our 50th reunion and traded stories. Some of the funniest tales concerned our experiences with the transition from maps to GPS devices. Here are three of the funniest stories from the Class of 1964. I wish you could hear them being told - hilarious!

One woman started her trip in Philadelphia where she was visiting her daughter. She told her daughter to give her directions to Interstate 70. From there she knew how to get to London, Ohio. She followed her daughter’s directions and thought something was wrong because she wasn’t getting to I-70. So she stopped at a gas station to get a map. “A map???” said the gas station attendant. It was as though she was asking for some long buried artifact! I can’t remember if they located a map or not. It was just funny that something as common as a map (common when we were in high school) is no longer common. 

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Another woman had an adventure with her brother. They set off on a trip from Ohio to the East Coast. For some reason their GPS quit working (or they couldn’t figure out how to use it). They too stopped at a gas station to get a map. No maps at the station. They were referred to a nearby Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel had maps, but only for the surrounding area. She hilariously told about traveling across country, stopping at a Cracker Barrel every time they “drove off their map” and needed a new one!

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Another classmate and her husband were in a major city visiting their son and his family. They stayed at a hotel and were looking forward to the young granddaughters staying with them overnight at the hotel. Everything was going fine and people got ready for bed. The youngest girl started crying, wanting her parents. Eventually the older girl said, “Grandma, it’s not going to get any better. You’d better take her home.” It was midnight. My classmate put her coat on over her PJs and asked the hotel person to get her car. She programmed her son's address into the GPS and started driving. After driving a while she knew she was lost. She knew there were parts of this city she shouldn’t be in at night but didn’t know where those parts were or if she was in them. The little girl whined for her mother. The older girl asked if they were lost. My classmate was worried about being lost in this city at that time of night. In her PJs with her young granddaughters in the car! Finally she saw a street name she recognized so she exited the freeway and eventually found her way to her son's. Their street is very narrow with cars parked on both sides. Backing out of driveways can be tricky. Since it was the middle of the night she “parked” in the middle of the street, took the girls up to the porch and timidly knocked on the door so she wouldn’t wake the baby. No one came to the door so she finally pounded on the door which brought her son to the door. Then a neighbor, who had been at a late party, drove up behind her car and was irate that she was blocking the street. She got back in her car, put in the address of the hotel into her GPS and found that she had to make just two turns and she was at the hotel!

So it goes.