Memories of reading a map when you were too young to remember anythng else

[bandit957]

Anyone else have memories like this?

I have a faint memory of being about 2 years old and laying on my back on a bed and looking at a local street map - probably a Metro Graphic Arts map from the mid-'70s. This would have been about 1975.

[sparker]

When I was about 3, my dad hung a U.S. map (showing major rail lines) and a world map side-by-side over my little "desk" in my bedroom.  Before I went to bed, he'd quiz me about the location of states, cities, and countries (no pressure, just as an exercise).  Fortunately I have idetic memory, so I usually got things right.  That got me into figuring out connectivity between places and from there a lifelong interest in transportation.  My grandfather got me my first road atlas (a black-and-white national compact Rand McNally with the nation divided into 20 or so regions) when I was about 5 or 6 -- which is when I started gathering maps from gas stations.  My dad, having several oil company credit cards, was able to procure out-of-state maps from those oil companies until I had the full collection, which was updated yearly until I got my first Gousha atlas at age 9.  Since my birthday was right after Thanksgiving, from that point on until I went away to college I got the next years' Gousha atlas for my birthday and the Rand McNally equivalent at Christmas (I liked the former for its detail and the latter because they showed tentative Interstate corridors).  Once on my own, I bought both atlases yearly until the Gousha's discontinuance; now I'm down to the McNally -- but missing the American Map atlas, which I also bought circa 1995-2004; but its acquisition by Kappa and its subsequent decline in quality have taken it off my want list.  My current GF is following in the tradition set by my 2 ex-wives by rolling her eyes when I thumb through an atlas -- but she pretty much knows I really don't care! -- as long as I don't reciprocate regarding her purse/clutch obsession (and huge collection).  At this point I'm old enough to know to steer clear of such things! 

[hbelkins]

I don't know when the US routes disappeared from California, but I do remember seeing maps that showed US 60 in southern California, and thinking how neat it would be to take a road that ran a few dozen miles from where I lived all the way to the west coast.

I'm turned 56 in December, so this had to be when I was very young.

[US 89]

I don't know when the US routes disappeared from California, but I do remember seeing maps that showed US 60 in southern California, and thinking how neat it would be to take a road that ran a few dozen miles from where I lived all the way to the west coast.

I'm turned 56 in December, so this had to be when I was very young.

Most of the California US highways were decommissioned in 1964. That year, US 60 west of Beaumont became CA 60. US 60 was gradually routed onto I-10 east of there as portions of the interstate were completed. US 60 was fully eliminated in California in 1972.

[DandyDan]

When I was a young kid, my mom and her aunt (my great-aunt), who lived close by, used to go to garage sales and since I had to go along, I was the navigator. I told them where and when to turn. I also remember going to her cousin's house and seeing their old stack of road atlases, which had a lot of unbuilt interstate shown. There was also going to grandpa's house and seeing all of his old maps.

[Rothman]

Earliest map I remember had a note like "Interstate Highways:  80 mph speed limit unless otherwise posted."  It was a Rand McNally map and I am pretty sure it wasn't in an atlas. 

Back then, pediatricians actually worried about kids reading "too early."  My mother remembers me sitting in the back seat of our piece of junk Plymouth Duster (1974 model I believe) calling out the one way and stop signs when I was two at the oldest.

In any matter, although my mother read to me from nearly birth on, I do have early memories of looking at paper maps on my parents' bed.  Problem is I started to read  early enough that I can't remember not being able to read at least something.

[Max Rockatansky]

I used to take my Dad's Rand McNally map out of his car and study it.  I always liked seeing where roadways went and looking at maps of cities.  I want to say his map book was from the early 1980s, really wish I had hung onto it. 

[US 89]

My parents had a laminated fold-out map of the Wasatch Front that I loved looking at. I think it was a Rand McNally. Looking back on it, the coolest thing about it was that even though the roads were up to date, 400 South in SLC was also "Alt US 40"  and SR-201 had an "Alt US 50"  designation on that map. I didn't know what to make of those until a few years ago, when I first learned of the old highways through SLC that got decommissioned. Those designations were decommissioned in the 1960s-70s, yet somehow those two alternates stuck around on that map.

I'd love to find that map. Unfortunately my parents probably tossed it because it was "wrong" –the exit numbers on I-15 changed, new roads got built, etc...

[skluth]

I collected gas station maps when I was a kid. It was the early 60's, so there was a lot of highway construction happening and I'd check for differences between the different companies plus any new/ proposed highways. I was also put on display in second grade as I had already memorized all the state and most of the world capitals. I'm surprised the higher grade kids didn't beat me up for being a geographic know-it-all, but maybe they realized I was really upset with the nuns who made me stand up in front of everyone like a trained seal at the circus.

I'd also plan new highways on the old maps because I'd gotten new ones. I wish I had saved them now, but you don't think about those things when you're in grade school. As I got older, I planned entire cities including highways, mass transit, park systems, commercial and industrial districts, etc. for my doodling to stay awake in boring high school classes. I'd tape new sheets of paper as my cities expanded. Needless to say, I wasted countless hours as an adult once the original Sim City was released.

[jon daly]

Anyone else have memories like this?

I have a faint memory of being about 2 years old and laying on my back on a bed and looking at a local street map - probably a Metro Graphic Arts map from the mid-'70s. This would have been about 1975.

I have faint early memories of sitting on phonebooks to sit at the big people table. I likely started reading them soon afterwards; even before I started reading maps.

[hbelkins]

Ever have a memory of a trip when you were very young that sticks out?

I have a few. One was of the return of our family from a trip to the Outer Banks. We went there often when I was a youngun. On one trip, we found ourselves on US 421 in Leslie County, Ky. My dad knew he could take KY 1482 and come out at Oneida, about 36 miles from home. I remember seeing an old Ashland station in a small community along KY 1482.

I took a short drive today after a memorial service at what might as well be my family cemetery and passed by that location. The Ashland sign is gone, but otherwise the place looked just like it did from my childhood memories around half a century ago.

[bandit957]

I remember looking out the window of a motel room on a family trip to Detroit when I was 2, when I was too young to remember hardly anything else.

I remember other bits and pieces of things from about that age, but not necessarily road-related. For instance, I remember being in a mall that had a Kroger, and I remember sitting on a curb watching a huge parade that had a marching band.

[Kulerage]

I used to look at the two road atlases my family had all the time. One was of my home state, and the other of the entire USA. If I had to guess, it was from 2003, so it would be cool if I found that atlas again, as a little piece of road history.

[cpzilliacus]

I remember an atlas printed in  the  early 1960's when the Capital Beltway (I-495) was under construction in both Maryland and Virginia.  Some parts, including the two Potomac River crossings (Woodrow Wilson Bridge and what is now known as the American Legion Bridge) were open quite a few years prior to completion of the entire 64 miles in 1964.

I have no idea who published the atlas.

I-495 was marked as U.S. 495 and the name used then was Circumferential Highway, the planning name for the freeway.

[Henry]

My first memory is looking at a wall map of Chicago and memorizing the locations of all the landmarks (Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, etc.) Also, the proposed I-494 was on that map, as well as I-90 being routed on what is now I-290, the current I-90 near O'Hare marked as IL 194, and I-190 marked as IL 594.

I used to take my Dad’s Rand McNally map out of his car and study it.  I always liked seeing where roadways went and looking at maps of cities.  I want to say his map book was from the early 1980s, really wish I had hung onto it. 

My parents have atlases from at least the early 60s, because that's when they first learned to drive. I'll have to take inventory on my next trip to Chicago.

I collected gas station maps when I was a kid. It was the early 60's, so there was a lot of highway construction happening and I'd check for differences between the different companies plus any new/ proposed highways. I was also put on display in second grade as I had already memorized all the state and most of the world capitals. I'm surprised the higher grade kids didn't beat me up for being a geographic know-it-all, but maybe they realized I was really upset with the nuns who made me stand up in front of everyone like a trained seal at the circus.

I'd also plan new highways on the old maps because I'd gotten new ones. I wish I had saved them now, but you don't think about those things when you're in grade school. As I got older, I planned entire cities including highways, mass transit, park systems, commercial and industrial districts, etc. for my doodling to stay awake in boring high school classes. I'd tape new sheets of paper as my cities expanded. Needless to say, I wasted countless hours as an adult once the original Sim City was released.

As hard as it is to believe, I've never played Sim City in my life, and it turns out I never needed to, what with my drawings of new highways on the old atlases; at least half of them are marked up by now. I currently have a 2018, and I figure that I will get a new atlas in a couple of years anyway as time goes by, so there it is: another map book to mark up with new roads.

[jon daly]

I really like(d) cloverleaf intersections and drew them as a kid; along with some other interchange designs.