Once my husband has been somewhere, he can tell you how to get there using street names. He can tell you which highway to merge on and whether the highway you want is 580 West or East. He knows which highway he is on and which connecting highway he needs to take. He pays attention when he is the passenger in a vehicle and stores in his memory the route.
I, on the other hand, rely heavily on landmarks to get me to the same place I have visited before. I can’t tell you whether I need to take 580 West or East. I do not pay attention when I am in the passenger seat. I just enjoy the ride. You may remember my blog post entitled, “The Never Ending Drive”. Of course brain fog and short term memory loss add more confusion to my sense of direction.
My sister and I once flew out-of-state to surprise my parents at a family reunion. We used landmarks to get us around to all of the old places we used to venture to when we would go there as children on vacation. We knew we were close to our uncle’s house because we had just passed the brick school. We spent a great deal of time driving around and around in this very small town trying to find the Dairy Queen we visited every summer. The landmarks we used to get us there were right but we could not find the Dairy Queen. Finally we asked and were told that it had been torn down.
About the time of our trip my mom gave me a copy of her Modern Maturity magazine to read. As I scanned through the articles, one in particular stood out. The article was entitled Turn left at the dog. I shared it with my sister and we had a good laugh. I carried a copy of that article folded up neatly in my purse for a long time finally having to toss it like everything else I gave up. A month ago I was mentioning the article to my sister and how I would love to read it again. To my surprise, she had her copy. Today she scanned it and emailed it to me. I am sharing Turn left at the dog with all of you who have a strange or bizarre sense of direction. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
allergictolifemybattle 
I hear you, Sister! And I relate.
I am laughing because I know I am not alone in this!
Thanks, Kathy. Loved the article.
That’s me. I used to be on the equestrian team in college. Since I was president and got car sick I got the front passenger seat. I was expected to navigate to our horse shows — people were always amazed that I couldn’t name one route name but I knew every great food place and bathroom from here to Toronto.or Saratoga Springs or Cazenovia,,,:D
Oh Colleen, that is too funny!
I am very good with directions, etc. After I got married and moved to my husband’s state, I never could (and still can’t) find my way around that area (we moved from there 15 years ago). I think part of the problem was they didn’t have a professional county map, only hand drawn maps of the area. Another problem was everyone had lived there forever except me. You would ask for directions and they would tell you to turn at the theater that was destroyed by a tornado 10 years earlier 🙂 .
That is so funny. Just like the story..If it is night the dog won’t be there.
Delightful post. When I started working as a Home Health nurse they put me in a different county, so I had no clue where anything was. Back then, you could get paper maps, but on a few occasions they were of little help. My favorite direction was–”Do you know where the old Bi-Lo used to be?”
I barely knew where I was, let alone a vacant lot! It didn’t take long to learn where it had been, but that landmark was used all the years I worked there. I even used it myself when giving phone directions, but I tried to be more specific with the directions I put into the computer.
I did read something a long time ago that said men gave directions by streets and routes; women by landmarks. Over the years, I’ve noticed that was pretty much an accurate observation.
It is so good to know that I am not alone in this. We recently had an old lumber yard torn down. I turned in front of it many times. I am okay during the day but at night, I am lost. However, I new building is being erected. Perhaps that will be my new landmark.