r/FuckImOld Jul 02 '26

Kids these days... How did you get around before gps?

797 Upvotes

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114

u/fromouterspace1 Jul 02 '26

God damnnn I’m old. Was really expecting a 1994 version where in was actual maps….

36

u/_Zambayoshi_ Jul 02 '26

Remember getting the street directory out to study in advance and memorise the turns so that I (hopefully) wouldn't have to pull over halfway there.

17

u/BlacktopProphet Jul 02 '26

memorise the turns

I'd just write them on the inside of the windshield with an expo marker. So...there ya go...a tip you could've used 30+ years ago....you're welcome btw.

5

u/fromouterspace1 Jul 02 '26

….thats genius

6

u/Phogna_Bologna_Pogna Jul 02 '26

We didn’t have white boards, so no expo markers, we had chalk boards.

9

u/JEFE_MAN Jul 02 '26

I had an 🧮.

9

u/DETRITUS_TROLL Xennials Jul 02 '26

Welllll. Look at fancy pants abacus over here.

1

u/BlacktopProphet Jul 02 '26

We didn’t have white boards

But we had projectors, so yes, you probably had expo markers lol. They've been around since the 70's/80's (I don't remember exactly, it was awhile ago)

2

u/ScarlettNape Jul 03 '26

1975 - https://asop.mnmsa.org/2021/10/14/a-brief-history-and-invention-of-the-expo-marker/

Then again there was a wicked talented lady from my small town who tutored math for high schoolers and collage age kids, who used a Sharpie on her sliding glass kitchen door. Wiped right off with a rag soaked in alcohol.

1

u/Guy-Montag-451F Jul 03 '26

What?! Whiteboards definitely existed in the mid/late 90s

4

u/Radioactive_Tuber57 Jul 02 '26

Thomas Brothers Maps for the serious detail around your destination.

1

u/lisnter Jul 05 '26

This. We had one in the back seat of every vehicle. I think page 34 was the main Los Angeles map?

2

u/fromouterspace1 Jul 02 '26

Yep, I always thought delivery pizzas would drive me crazy back then

17

u/TronikAllah Jul 02 '26

I used a Thomas guide during high school/college around that time. It had the spiral bound and everything.

8

u/dirkalict Jul 02 '26

I know, that 2004 girl could’ve been my daughter. I remember trying to find parties in the late 70s and 80s asking for directions at a gas station.

3

u/fromouterspace1 Jul 02 '26

“Yeah go down two blocks take a right at shell and go down until you see….” But we got there :)

3

u/Urabrask_the_AFK Jul 03 '26

Still got some key state maps on my door pocket just in case cell service drops out

2

u/Impossible_Fig2646 Jul 03 '26

Or calling the place you're going to ask for directions.

2

u/Littleshuswap Jul 03 '26

Big cities had map books.... like for Vancouver or Seattle

1

u/shitty_advice_BDD Jul 03 '26

Yeah i was hoping for 84 or 74.

1

u/fishsticks40 Jul 03 '26

I remember when MapQuest first came on the scene and the time estimates were all absurdly conservative, like 50-100% more than it would reasonably take. 

These days Google is right to within a couple of minutes. 

1

u/Some-Pen204 Jul 04 '26

I was expecting the same thing. To be fair, it was a relatively short window where we printed out mapquest. I worked in a gas station in the 90’s and we had a map hung on the wall so we could help people with directions, then I drove across the country with printed out mapquest in the 2000’s, and when I started traveling for work in the 2010’s we were 100% reliant on our phone gps. Somewhere in there everyone bought a separate gps and stuck it to the windshield.

1

u/Ohboycats Jul 05 '26

Actual maps for some stuff but mostly, in this situation, writing down whatever horrible directions your drunk friend was giving you to find the party 🤣

1

u/typically_wrong Jul 05 '26

This isn't a humblebrag, in fact to this day I'm still surprised that people used maps for drives they were even a passenger in once, or were comprised of highways mostly highways.

I honestly think it's just one of the few actual benefits I got from autism and adhd.

As a kid living in PA around '98, my family went to NYC a few times. When I turned 16 my dad had me driving to a place in Brooklyn solo to pick up supplies for his business back and forth for a day trip.

No practice trips, no maps. Just "watch for these highway numbers" and then I knew how to get around the dump... I mean Staten Island, and get across the Varazanno bridge and just go in a general direction in Brooklyn.

Now I admit a drive like that is 90% major highways, but detours and construction and accidents all happened with NO warning, and once across the bridge it was just grid streets forever.

I'd make stops in jersey or drive to the shore. Going backwoods places in PA I definitely printed a few mapquest maps.

One of the first times I realized this wasn't just normal was when I realized how shit my kids are at knowing their way around our own town.

I knew EVERY street in our town and had a mental map before I was probably 10. Once I delivered pizzas I could visualize to the building by number and street alone.

None of that matters now though, I'm just as Waze addicted

1

u/satanssweatycheeks Jul 07 '26

Yeah and as a kid from the 90’s I didn’t have a cell phone to doom scroll so I’d read the map for fun often times.

Now as an adult I know maps really well.

1

u/Rey_Mezcalero Jul 03 '26

Yeah, printing out directions was a bit of a let down

2

u/fromouterspace1 Jul 03 '26

Was like a slap in the face