AARoads Forum

Like many road enthusiasts, my interest in roads dates back to early childhood.   But just how early?  I recently set about to try to put a date to my earliest road-related memories.

I grew up in suburban Detroit.  There were two reliably annual road trips from my childhood.  My mother's first cousin had a cottage at Silver Lake, about 40 miles north of Muskegon that we visited every year.  My dad's family was from the rural area north of Bay City, and his family reunion was always Labor Day weekend, always in Bay City.  My mother grew up in Albion, and we would visit there a few times every year.

I don't have specific memories related to the Bay City trips, except that the earliest were via Telegraph Road (US-24), Dixie Highway (US-10) and M-15 north from Clarkston.  Later trips were via US-16 and US-23 from Brighton.  I would guess that freeway completions (US-23 and I-75) accounted for the re-route.

I distinctly remember the segment of US-16 east of Lansing, and following along on the map as we passed through Fowlerville, Webberville, Williamston, Okemos.  The Michigan Highways website doesn't say, but the best information I can find from MDOT indicates that the freeway replacing this segment opened in late 1962.  So these memories could be from any year (or years) prior.  I know I had earlier memories than that.

I finally nailed down one good indication that my road interest started much earlier.  On our trips to Albion, we would take the most modern road then available, US-12, portions of which were already limited-access freeway. 

I have very few vivid memories from my early years, but this one is high-resolution digital photographic quality.  We were westbound on US-12 in western Jackson County, only a few miles from our destination in Albion. 

Just east of the junction with M-99, on US-12 (Michigan Avenue in Jackson County) we crossed the very active under-construction route of the new freeway that would become I-94.  Both of the ribbons of concrete had been laid up to within a hundred feet or so on both sides of the road we were traveling.  Only that short gap needed to be filled in for the new concrete pavement to be complete.

MDOT chose to not construct a bridge to carry the old road over the new road, instead re-routing the old road parallel with and north of the freeway over to M-99.  Have a look at http://tinyurl.com/qf22c7s   
The photo shows the M-99 interchange, the I-94 freeway, the reroute and the old now-abandoned US-12.  In my memory, the old road had not yet been severed.

The date-stamp for my virtual-memory photo?  Well, according to Chris Bessert's Michigan Highways website, the US-12 freeway east of M-99 was completed in 1958, the segment west from there in 1959.

I would have been seven years old in the summer of 1958.  My interest in roads and maps probably pre-dates that.

Roughly ten years ago (I can't put a specific year) I remember sitting in the car with my dad going to Manila. We always went on MacArthur Highway (PH-3) and North Luzon Expwy (PH-Toll2), two of only four highways I knew at the time.

On MacArthur Highway, I would read the town names off the arches we went under as we went through each town. On NLEX, I would read the town names off the BGSes, which always had the name of the town on them (I kid you not, some of them actually look like this):

(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F2sX1Yy0.png&hash=2026a1c01687f99992ab0e2977aaa6f7bd932c7c)

and after a few more trips I had the sequence memorized. MacArthur: Bangar, Luna, Balaoan, Bacnotan, San Juan, San Fernando, Bauang, Caba, Aringay, Agoo, Santo Tomas, Rosario, Sison, Pozorrubio, Urdaneta, Villasis, Rosales, San Manuel, Moncada, Paniqui, Gerona, Tarlac, Capas, Bamban, Mabalacat; NLEX: Mabalacat, Angeles, San Fernando, Mexico, San Simon, Apalit, Pulilan, Calumpit, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Malolos, Bocaue, Marilao, Meycauayan, Valenzuela, Caloocan.

It had to be before I turned 3, which was in 1976. I remember going on a family trip to visit relatives in Philadelphia, and being surprised to see an Interstate 70 somewhere along the way. "But, but, but 71 and 75 are the only Interstates," I thought to myself. (I don't remember being on I-74 much before then, and I-275 and I-471 were in their infancy.)

My earliest local road memories were probably on US 27 going from Highland Heights north into Southgate. I invented a sound to describe the curve on the yellow warning signs.

Also, when I was about 4, which was around 1977 or 1978, I became interested in the construction of I-471 around Woodlawn - after this project decimated a local street called Lourdes Lane. My family had always used Lourdes Lane to drive to some stores in Bellevue, and we were shocked to find it destroyed by construction.

When this occurred, I got out a paper grocery bag and drew a map of the neighborhood.

I also remember the old Graphic Street Guide maps put out by Metro Graphic Arts.

I remember my first road memories to be on a trip to Plymouth, MA from New Jersey where I lived when I grew up.  We were passing by a freeway ramp that appeared to be a trumpet interchange, and then when we passed under the intersecting highway I remember looking at the bridge to be a long endless viaduct with a tractor trailer in the distance heading towards us from the left.  The location will always be a mystery to me, but its my first recollection of roads that I remember.

My first memories on the road are back to age 4. Photography started at age 5, but only of scenery. I noticed Botts Dots at that age, and I remember drawing maps with them on a pad from Petaluma Creamery (in fact, I remember drawing a map with them inside the creamery, probably right after getting said pad) (in fact, I will be revisiting it nearly 30 years later just because of how much I loved that pad as a kid). My next road memories actually skip way ahead into my teens.

My earliest memory of roads is from a couple of months before I was a year old.  That's strange, but it was an unconscious memory.

In my childhood, I had a dream several times.  I was on my bicycle on a four-lane divided highway in a rural area.  It was at a T-intersection, and the terminating route was to my left.  I somehow knew that left was the way home, and that it was 400 miles.  I despaired having so far to go.  Strangely, I wasn't going left toward home, I was going straight ahead.

Years later, about 5 years ago, I thought about that dream and realized I knew where it was, and that I'd been there as an adult.  It was US 90 where US 385 splits off going north, after a short concurrency.  The way I'd dreamed it was very nearly the way it actually looked.  The only time I'd been there before the dream was as a baby.  I must have seen it and heard the adults talking about it and somehow remembered it.  On that trip, we didn't head north from there; we went east to Langtry.

My earliest real memory is probably going shopping in Fort Worth with my aunt.  I didn't care for shopping, but I wanted to go along for the ride.  I've always liked rural drives, but at that time seeing the city freeways was really neat.

Quote from: wxfree on March 23, 2014, 02:01:42 AM

My earliest real memory is probably going shopping in Fort Worth with my aunt.  I didn't care for shopping, but I wanted to go along for the ride.  I've always liked rural drives, but at that time seeing the city freeways was really neat.

On a slight tangent, it was a shopping trip to downtown Ft. Worth on the old Leonard's/Tandy Center subway that probably ignited my interest in mass transit & rail. 

My interest in roads has alternated with an interest in radio stations. For a while in junior high school, I didn't care much about roads, but then my favorite radio station was gutted, so my interest in roads roared back with a vengeance. That lasted a couple years before the radio interest came back with an even greater vengeance. I majored in radio/TV in college.

Then the Telecommunications Act of 1996 decimated the broadcasting industry, and the rest as they say is history.

I remember the toll booths on I-95's portion of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. They were removed in 1992 when I was 6. (There are still at least two covered toll banners still in the wild, both on VA 144; possibly another still around in Richmond.) I also remember the subsequent exit renumbering and "old exit" signs that were up for a short time after.

I remember once the Wheeling Tunnel on I-70 as a child, but did not come alive until after the trip I took in 89, several years later.  It was back in 1970 when I was 5 years old on a cross country trip from NJ to CA when I first saw it.  However, when going from NJ to KY in July 1989, I drove the I-70 through the WV Panhandle and when I saw the tunnel portals is automatically registered that I was once here before.  The Wheeling Tunnels on I-70 have different portal shapes at each end, that struck me odd when I was a small youngster that was kept alive, but buried in my mind.

It's weird, the shit you remember. I have a brief memory of driving with my mother on the San Bernardino Freeway near downtown L.A. and reading highway signs out loud. I read off, "Gravy Avenue", misreading Garvey. Probably about 4 at the time.

Your mind records things that you do not know until you visit a place again!

I remember seeing route shields in Connecticut (I was probably on I-84) and wondering what the difference was between the green squares, the white squares, and the white shield-shaped routes.

Only Connecticut has green squares, and even then, only on BGS.

Quote from: 1 on March 23, 2014, 12:26:08 PM
I remember seeing route shields in Connecticut (I was probably on I-84) and wondering what the difference was between the green squares, the white squares, and the white shield-shaped routes.

Only Connecticut has green squares, and even then, only on BGS.

California uses green shields on BGSes and so did Florida in a few places up until the 1990's.  NJ even had them on the Garden State Parkway back in the 70's.

I just looked up a website about the Detroit Street Railway system.  The Detroit municipal bus system went by the DSR name for many years (until 1974) after the streetcars were gone.

I distinctly remember the old electric-operated (from overhead wires) streetcars, and the sparks flying from the wires as the streetcar moved along.

The last streetcar along Michigan Avenue (US-112 at that time) was September 7, 1955. I was 4 1/2 years old that summer.

My earliest road memories involve driving HI 76 to H-1, to Honolulu International Airport to pick up my dad.

I remember there was a section of N-330 expressway (current A-23) between Huesca and Zaragoza still U/C and we had to go in the road. The expressway opened on December 28th, 1998. I was 5 back then.

I also remember the route to the beach consisted of the following numbers: N-240, A-2, C-240 and AP-2. Yup, two numbers twice To make the things worse, what was then A-2 is now AP-2 :sombrero:, luckily the former AP-2 was renumbered to C-14 (along with C-240) three years before A-2 was changed to AP-2. And even worse is that C-240 had a concurrency with N-240. At some point the N-240 section that parallels former A-2/current AP-2 was improved so the route was changed to avoid the t(r)oll.

Hard for me to answer this. I always liked maps and I know by age 5 I was giving my parents directions. I'm sure by that point I was demanding in advance to know whether my dad was going to use "Cars Only" or "Cars-Trucks-Buses" on the Jersey Turnpike.

In the second grade my teacher didn't like it that I "drew little badges on the numbers" on math assignments (when the number was one I knew like 495, 270, etc.).

I remember on our first trip to Nags Head when I was four years old (so August 1977, as we always took family vacations in August) my mother remarking that the road south from Virginia ran past "Barfo" and "Slimo" (real names: Barco and Sligo). I also remember on that trip my father explaining to me how passing zones worked on two-lane roads.

When I was about five years old my family travelled to Disney World. I vividly remember passing through the Wallace Tunnel in Mobile. This tunnel would remain semi-mythical in my mind until around eight years later when we passed through it again on another vacation trip (Gulf Shores).

From that same trip I also have vague memories of the roads in the Kissimmee area, which I happen to remember is where our hotel was located. I am guessing one of the roads was US 192, as passing through there again in 1999 jogged my memory. Another road was clearly I-4 as I remember seeing the shields and was impressed that there were interstates with numbers beside "10".

I have vague memories of a first trip between Glendora, California and Phoenix, Arizona when I was probably about three, maybe four years old, in the mid-1960s, I suppose. Leaving sometime at night, coming into Blythe during dawn, a spot where the highway curved just past some water or grain tanks, the road crossing under the railroad track in Wickenburg, Arizona. In 1997, my parents moved to near Phoenix and my first trip, I used US 60 between I-10 and Wickenburg and some of the stuff I remember was still there, like those grain tanks by where the road curves just east of Aguila. 

Sometimes these early memories actually look different from reality. I remember an early memory of US 27 approaching A.J. Jolly County Park that seemed to have psychedelic surroundings - almost like the old 7-Up advertising signs of the '70s. But when I went through there later, it was nothing like that.

My first road-related memory was back in Russia. It was the first time I encountered a stop sign, yes, spelled out in the Latin alphabet (which I couldn't read at the time). I tried to puzzle out how to read it or what the word meant only to be told by my father after I couldn't do it. I did know what it meant once I heard it, since it exists in Russian with similar, although more narrow, meaning.

In the US, the first peculiar road-related thing I noticed were little signs in the median of the NJ Turnpike (see https://www.google.com/maps/@39.934589,-74.948736,3a,75y,39.87h,72.8t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sUUAmQVTX4wtby_LhhaWpfw!2e0!5m1!1e1). At some point once I knew Hebrew, I started referring to thee symbol as "chof-c" (the chof looks like an inverted c). Much later did I finally puzzle out that these always occurred 1000 feet ahead of a median crossover for official vehicles (and realized there were similar "Z" signs for crossing between car and truck lanes). By the way, are these specific to the Turnpike or do similar signs appear elsewhere?

I guided a van of stranded airline passengers from Alpena to Sault Sainte Marie when I was 5 (and I'm from South Dakota).

My earliest road memory is when I was about four or five and riding with my father on Route 128 (now I-95) through Wakefield (MA).  It was just after dusk, and my dad said to me "See this sign (a mid-1960s MassDPW button copy on painted plywood background ground-mounted BGS)?  Watch me make it blink."  He then flipped his high beams on and off two or three times, and the sign appeared to blink.

I also have no memory of never being able to read (even on the most basic level).  I've been told I started to read just after I turned two.  The family story is that I taught myself to read at such an young age by looking at highway signs (everything was text back then) on car trips around town.

I think I learned to read from both road signs and 'Sesame Street'. I guess it was before I turned 3.

Quote from: brianreynolds on March 22, 2014, 09:27:17 AM
Like many road enthusiasts, my interest in roads dates back to early childhood.   But just how early?

My earliest memories are from the early 1960's, when part of a new freeway, the Circumferential Highway (Capital Beltway now), opened near my childhood home in Silver Spring, Maryland.  I was not more than 3 years old then.

The construction of the rest of what was to become the Capital Beltway (especially in Maryland), and the widening of that early section from four lanes to six lanes are vivid memories. 

After that came construction of I-70 between Hagerstown and Frederick (it was to be quite a few more years before all of I-70 between Frederick and I-695 was completed) and then I-95 between I-495 and I-695.

I can also recall when I-66 only ran from I-495 as far west as U.S. 29 at Gainesville.  In those days, traffic had to follow Va. 55 most of the rest of the way from Gainesville to I-81.

A few things:

Divided US 66 in Missouri where the EB lanes were apart from the WB lanes. I remember the signs I thought were facing the wrong direction


Wishing now I'd had an opportunity to get a photo

I remember black/white exit signs on 66 with the route spelled out rather than shields
Bus US 66

and Missouri's ubiquitous  button-copy STOP signs.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm8.staticflickr.com%2F7288%2F8741383221_1c63483254_q_d.jpg&hash=09f5eb41b287683dad24ed9d5173a872e84b4822)

According to my parents, the first word I read was "Texaco", and pretty soon I could identify all the gas stations.

East of Saint Paul MN, there used to be an old-fashioned large letter "Madison" sign on I-94. Another sign said "Hudson Road". There was also one or two stoplights which hadn't been eliminated yet.

Land had been cleared along Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis for the MN-55 freeway, but somehow an old-fashioned Dairy Queen with a blue neon sign survived for a while. The Hi-Lake-23rd St intersection also had a gas station in the middle of it. I can recall construction at the 55-62 interchange, but it was abandoned. (Later the holes and piles became popular with BMX bicyclers.).

When I was 6, I remember seeing "TO US 2" signs in Canada, and thinking they were quite odd.

Unfortunately I was born too late to remember the great era of freeway expansion. It was mostly all there by the time I was aware of it.

Quote from: flowmotion on March 27, 2014, 12:24:49 AM
When I was 6, I remember seeing "TO US 2" signs in Canada, and thinking they were quite odd.

This and an old NE shield are the holy grail of old road photos.

Quote from: bandit957 on March 26, 2014, 08:20:11 PM
I think I learned to read from both road signs and 'Sesame Street'. I guess it was before I turned 3.

I learned my alphabet very early because I had a chalkboard that had the letters on it. I pestered anyone who came by to read me the letters until I learned them. I then practiced by reading every road sign and billboard along the way. When I didn't know the words, I'd spell them out. I was very proud, but it drove my parents bonkers. My dad finally got me to shut up, and then I just did it silently. I was a very odd child.

My vivid first memory of something very specifically road related was the construction of Rt. 55 thru my town.  It started construction in the early 80's and opened in 1985, so I was about 6 - 10 years old at the time.

But...I remember going to the shore, picking up the "Highway to nowhere"...which was the portion of 55 built between Rt. 40 & Rt. 47 in the 60's & 70's, well before construction of the rest of 55, so that would put my age at 5 or younger. 

According to my parents, mine came from remembering how to get to Shrub Oak, NY, when I was about 3 or 4 (we were visiting friends that my parents met on a cruise) the year after going the first time.  (I remember getting lost on a random road in Fort Lee, NJ, but I could not tell you what road it was. (It was not I-80 because I remember a stoplight.)

My first real memory was from one of our trips from our home in the western Detroit suburbs to my uncle's farm south of Howell.  The US-16 freeway between Farmington and Brighton was under construction then, and my dad stopped the car along Grand River Avenue (still US-16 but not for much longer) for a few minutes to watch the paving crew at work just east of today's I-96 Exit 153.  Cool stuff for a 6 year old.

The next summer, we were traveling to my grandfather's place in Taylors, SC.  We were somewhere in North Carolina.  As we approached a junction, my dad asked my mom which way to turn.  She looked at the map, sighed, and said, "I'm not sure where we are."  My dad took the map, handed it to me and said, "Where to?"  From that point on, until I left for college, I was the family navigator.

Like other posters, I used road signs and billboards to help learn to read long before kindergarten.  Once I found out the squiggly lines were words I couldn't get enough of them.

Another source of early literacy for me was the '70s version of 'The Electric Company'. Remember the funky music beds they always used on 'The Electric Company'? Doo doo doo...wokka wokka wokka...doo doo doo...wokka wokka wokka...

Also, I remember doing something interesting when I started a new school in 1st grade. The first thing I did when I got home from school that day was open up the Metro Graphic Arts map of northern Kentucky to see which local municipality the school was in. Somehow I paid very close attention to all the roads when I was on the school bus.

Quote from: catch22 on March 27, 2014, 10:26:18 AM
My first real memory was from one of our trips from our home in the western Detroit suburbs to my uncle's farm south of Howell.  The US-16 freeway between Farmington and Brighton was under construction then, and my dad stopped the car along Grand River Avenue (still US-16 but not for much longer) for a few minutes to watch the paving crew at work just east of today's I-96 Exit 153.  Cool stuff for a 6 year old.

Hoo boy, I'll bet you and I could compare notes.  I grew up in Dearborn (west end, south of Michigan Avenue).  My uncle (mother's brother) and his family lived in Ypsilanti.  Long before I-94, there was an expressway option, but most times when we would visit, we would just take US-112 (Michigan Avenue).  Westbound. approaching Ypsi, the road divides, with the old (WWII era) bypass taking the left fork, the older road (Michigan Avenue) to the right, through town.  The BGS for the urban option clearly said "BUS US-112".  I interpreted this literally, quite sure that this sign was directing the inter-city Greyhound driver to the correct destination.  I knew there were truck routes; I had seen the signs and shields.  Logically, why would there not also be BUS routes?  In the back seat with me, my brother (four years older) tried to convince me otherwise, but I would have none of it.  My parents in the front seat never intervened, never let on, but I'll bet they were hiding their grins.

Quote from: brianreynolds on March 27, 2014, 08:19:20 PM

Quote from: catch22 on March 27, 2014, 10:26:18 AM
My first real memory was from one of our trips from our home in the western Detroit suburbs to my uncle's farm south of Howell.  The US-16 freeway between Farmington and Brighton was under construction then, and my dad stopped the car along Grand River Avenue (still US-16 but not for much longer) for a few minutes to watch the paving crew at work just east of today's I-96 Exit 153.  Cool stuff for a 6 year old.

Hoo boy, I'll bet you and I could compare notes.  I grew up in Dearborn (west end, south of Michigan Avenue).  My uncle (mother's brother) and his family lived in Ypsilanti.  Long before I-94, there was an expressway option, but most times when we would visit, we would just take US-112 (Michigan Avenue).  Westbound. approaching Ypsi, the road divides, with the old (WWII era) bypass taking the left fork, the older road (Michigan Avenue) to the right, through town.  The BGS for the urban option clearly said "BUS US-112".  I interpreted this literally, quite sure that this sign was directing the inter-city Greyhound driver to the correct destination.  I knew there were truck routes; I had seen the signs and shields.  Logically, why would there not also be BUS routes?  In the back seat with me, my brother (four years older) tried to convince me otherwise, but I would have none of it.  My parents in the front seat never intervened, never let on, but I'll bet they were hiding their grins.

I bet we could too.  :)

I remember that junction well.  We had some family friends that moved out to Ypsi Township.  We would take the 112 bypass to the (long-gone) Grove Road exit.  I can't recall exactly when they moved out there ('57 or '58 ?), but the MSHD was just starting to build the short piece of present-day I-94 between Harris and Wiard roads.

We did a lot of camping vacations in northern Michigan back then.  As a result, I got to see a lot of the freeway system being built.  It was exciting to see what sections got completed from one trip to the next.  Best example:  I have family pictures taken on a Mackinac ferry in August 1957 with the almost-complete Mackinac Bridge in the background.  The next summer we got to drive across it.

Weekend family shopping trips on McKnight Road on Pittsburgh.  Still 4 lanes, every intersection had a different style signal, most intersections did not even have a left turn signal.  Most did have left turn pockets, but in Ross Township, the entire pavement area of the pocket was painted red.  Anyplace there were ramps, there was a decorative metal post with a fancy lighting unit that had a downward spotlight and was capped with a flashing amber lamp at all the divergance points.  Most were damaged by the late 1960's.  I also remember the installation of the median barrier rail between Nelson Run and Babcock.  Back then there was very lottle as far as development between the plaza across from Ross Park and Northway/Kaufmann's.

I can remember the railroad crossing on I-94 near US-23 while on a trip to the Detroit Zoo as a kindergartner.  I also remember the first time I crossed the Mackinac Bridge with my family.  Good days, good times.

My earliest memory of road enthusiasm would be in 1998 when my family moved up here from Orlando, Florida. All I can remember is staring at the signs on I-95 (which I knew was a highway at the time, or in my 4-year old brain: "long road with lots of cars". as we passed through all of the states. What I don't remember was how we got from I-95 to Hillsborough - I'm guessing that we used Exit 7B on I-95 north of Trenton for US 206 North. But that's a guess. Anyway, I was always fascinated by those signs, and I remember making lots of pretty simple roadways with LEGOs and whatnot (I only wish I could've added my own signs to those roads) in the near future, but then I took a break from that and wasted my life on video gaming.

Damn it, now that I think about it, where are those LEGOs??

When I was five, we drove from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale. I don't recall the exact routing, but I-75 was part of it (since I remembered it was the same as my brother's birthyear), as was Florida's Turnpike. On the way back, my dad gave me a map to play around with, and I followed us along the squiggles until I'd fallen asleep.

Quote from: Zeffy on March 28, 2014, 03:12:19 PM
I remember making lots of pretty simple roadways with LEGOs and whatnot

I actually did that too. I also carved a diamond interchange into some old Styrofoam paneling in my house.

Quote from: Zeffy on March 28, 2014, 03:12:19 PM
Damn it, now that I think about it, where are those LEGOs??

That's what I want to know.

I think my earliest memory stems from the phone books I read as a young boy, probably by age 5. I LOVED the maps. By the time I was a kindergartener I could already tell people my address.

Quote from: JMoses24 on March 30, 2014, 08:47:28 AM
I think my earliest memory stems from the phone books I read as a young boy, probably by age 5. I LOVED the maps. By the time I was a kindergartener I could already tell people my address.

One of my memories of phone book maps was in the '80s when I was maybe 10 or 11. Cincinnati Bell used to put out a Campbell County phone book, and the inside of the back cover included a map of the county that showed where the nuclear cloud would go if there was a meltdown at the Zimmer power plant. (This was before Zimmer abandoned nuclear energy.)

Another memory I have is of the street maps the local Yellow Pages used to have. It seems like the back cover of the phone book (or maybe somewhere else in the phone book) often included a weird drawing of a woman with orange hair holding up one of the maps. I always drew mustaches and beards on the drawings in our copy of the phone book. Remember, this was in the '80s.

Quote from: JMoses24 on March 30, 2014, 08:47:28 AM
I think my earliest memory stems from the phone books I read as a young boy, probably by age 5. I LOVED the maps. By the time I was a kindergartener I could already tell people my address.

My phone books never had any maps. sadface But I once had an old phone book (probably just a few years under myself) which listed all the ZIP codes of every town and city in the Philippines. I used to know most, if not all of them.

I also know my old phone numbers. (02) 640-0548; (074) 446-6634; (072) 794-1237.

One of the weird things I remember about the local phone books is after the city of Hamilton added an exclamation point to its name. I never saw anyone use the exclamation point in print, except the White Pages used it in the zip code directory in the back of the book. It looked ridiculous.

When I was three years old, I taught myself how to read through road maps. When I was four, I was able to connect the fact that the roads on the map correspond to real life.

I remember that day very well; my mother had errands to run and wanted to go to the furthest away one first: the bank. We drove from Edgewood, MD to the northeast side of Baltimore City (in the Overlea neighborhood).  We drove north on MD 755, then west on US 40, then took the ramp for MD 43. I remember the way the concrete sounded - like a galloping horse - and the flyover ramp that previously existed to Honeygo Blvd. We then made a left onto Perry Hall Blvd (which turns into Lillian Holt Drive), then a right on Kenwood Ave, then a left onto US 1. We crossed into the city and the bank was on the lefthand side. I remember us pulling into the bank and IT ALL MADE SENSE - the roads on the map follow the roads in real life.

I remember thinking how weird it was that the state route shields were round until you crossed the river, where they became this odd, boxy shape (which I now know is the state of Ohio). This was when people still referred to Ohio state routes as "Buckeye" routes.

I thought of a really good early road memory. This was in 1976, shortly before I turned 3. We went on a trip to Philadelphia to visit relatives, and we were on some major road like the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I noticed this strange device along the road (possibly in the median) that was made up of a big, tall pole and had sort of a "beak" that kept continuously opening and closing.

It was one of the strangest things I ever saw along a highway.

Decades later, someone on eMpTyR said it was an old rail signal that survived construction of the turnpike near Philadelphia.

Quote from: flowmotion on March 27, 2014, 12:24:49 AM
When I was 6, I remember seeing "TO US 2" signs in Canada, and thinking they were quite odd.

Memories!......not of the sign but the drive along US 2.  Back in the 60's when we were kids, we lived in Niagara Falls ON and would travel "home"  to the Maritimes every summer. The route dad always took was the "Thruway"  to near Albany......then Glens Falls, Rutland and across Vermont.....picking up US 2 at St. Johnsbury (and there was always the obligatory stop in Jefferson NH at Santa's Village or Six Gun City!) From Bangor east to the NB Border it was usually the "Airline"  route: ME9.

The fastest route then was through the states.....usually stopping 2 nights along the way in mom & pop motels or road-side cabins.

Today it about 18 hrs.....usually with a one night stop and freeway all the way through Canada except for about 60 km in Quebec.   

My earliest memory was on the Connecticut Turnpike in the Branford area... early 80s.  I got a peanut stuck up my nose on the Lake Saltonstall bridge, freaking my mom out.  I think we stopped at the toll booth so she could get it out. 

Back in the 80s, I remember frequent trips on the turnpike between New Haven and East Lyme, I-95 NB to Groton, and CT 9 from Old Saybrook up to the end (which was I-91) and I-91 from there north towards Mass, plus what is now I-691.  I still remember the first time I saw the sign that read "NOTICE - 66 IS NOW 691" and remember even before then when the expressway ended at Exit 4.  Back then, overhead assemblies were lighted, and there were the extra large route markers, now only seen in CT on I-84 for Exits 60-64.

Quote from: sammi on March 30, 2014, 11:21:45 AM

Quote from: JMoses24 on March 30, 2014, 08:47:28 AM
I think my earliest memory stems from the phone books I read as a young boy, probably by age 5. I LOVED the maps. By the time I was a kindergartener I could already tell people my address.

My phone books never had any maps. sadface But I once had an old phone book (probably just a few years under myself) which listed all the ZIP codes of every town and city in the Philippines. I used to know most, if not all of them.

I also know my old phone numbers. (02) 640-0548; (074) 446-6634; (072) 794-1237.

I use my phone number (with area code) from 1975 to 1983 as the lock code on my iPhone.

I knew my address by the time I was in kindergarten and I was able to spell the street name as well (Glastonbury Court).

For some reason, I developed a strange belief that each house must have somebody living there whose age was as the same as the house number. I don't know why I thought that.

Quote from: bandit957 on March 30, 2014, 04:51:57 PM
For some reason, I developed a strange belief that each house must have somebody living there whose age was as the same as the house number. I don't know why I thought that.

Was it true with your house at the time?

Quote from: 1 on March 30, 2014, 05:01:40 PM

Quote from: bandit957 on March 30, 2014, 04:51:57 PM
For some reason, I developed a strange belief that each house must have somebody living there whose age was as the same as the house number. I don't know why I thought that.

Was it true with your house at the time?

I think so.

I learned to read not by maps, but by looking at street signs. My mom would hear me reading them out loud during car rides.

Most of my early road memories involve being on the US 131 freeway through downtown Grand Rapids... nothing really sticks out.

But once we moved out into the country, I started making maps. In kindergarten or first grade, I attempted a to-scale map of my township, using a ruler to make gridlines. I moved onto drawing fictional counties on poster sized sheets of paper, almost like a primitive SimCity, and doodling interchanges on whatever notepad was closest to me. And I tried my hand many times at creating maps with the copy of Visio that was on our Windows 3.1 PC. (It was a less buggy program before Microsoft got their hands on it.)

The earliest memory that sticks out in my mind was from when I was four or five. It was a railroad crossing we encountered on the way to/from church. I was always afraid that a train would come, we would have to wait, and would run out of gas in the process. Around the same time frame, I remember looking for and counting the ID placards on the wooden high voltage poles that paralleled US 41 north of Fond du Lac, WI on the way to visit my grandparents up in Appleton.

I also still remember one of my first most cherished toys from about the same age was a four-way traffic signal (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Traffic-Light-for-Main-Street-No-2500-Vintage-c-1986-/171273530955?pt=Pretend_Play_Preschool_US&hash=item27e0b2ae4b) from a Fisher-Price Little People set. I think I still have it somewhere...

Lots of first memories:

My parents driving across the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges on trips into and out of New Jersey (I still look for the Old Hickory neon sign next to the Walt Whitman going across).

Wanting very badly to get on the Chester-Bridgeport Ferry and pestering my dad until he decided to do that...unfortunately, the traffic backup was so bad that after an hour he'd had enough and we went home.

The long hard slog drive to my grandparents' farm in the Florida panhandle, starting with slogging down US 13 through Chester and Marcus Hook, driving past the refineries by the river (one was Sinclair, one was Sunoco and one I think was Gulf); I was never so glad to get on I-95 and head south.  Then the detours on US 301, starting at Petersburg, getting back on I-95 at Emporia, getting off at Roanoke Rapids, getting on at Kenly, getting off at Fayetteville, getting on at Hope Mills, getting off at Lumberton (and seeing South of the Border in it's infancy), getting on at Dillon, getting off at Orangeburg and then the "crawl of death" stretch through SC and GA on US 301-82-84 (I hated US 84 with a white-hot passion).

Being absolutely amazed that the South Street drawbridge actually worked (one of the last openings in the mid-60s).

Being absolutely pissed that the Betsy Ross bridge was sitting there with no traffic on it whatsoever (because the approaches to I-95 weren't built yet). Several of my family members worked at the refractory plant in Port Richmond just north of the bridge and driving past it with the ramps from Richmond Street blocked just boggled my mind. BRIDGE...DRIVE...WANT...

And yes, I did manage to get my dad to make a crossing I wanted; on the way back home from Florida he detoured to Norfolk and crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel...which I found out later on terrified my mom.

I was about 10, and we were en route to our hotel outside Bellefontaine, OH after a family reunion. I knew we had to get to US 33, and convinced my dad I could navigate without a map based on my knowledge of the area. I didn't do too well, but did eventually get us back to the highway...

I loved the noise the tires made going over railroad crossings.  My parents said I could be asleep in the car and if they went over railroad tracks I would wake up immediately and look out the window to see if it was a multiple crossing.  They said I would really react every time, and funny, I do remember it, we took a vacation to Texas in '60 or '61 (I would have been 3 or 4) and I remember going over several railroad crossing in Kansas. 

I remember pestering my parents to drive me down certain roads that we never used.

The reply was always, "Tim, someday you'll be old enough to drive, and then you'll get to drive down this road."

Inevitably, roads like this ended up being torn down before I became old enough to drive.

When I was 5, we took a trip from Grand Rapids to Florida.  I don't remember much about the travel parts of the trip at all.  Since we visited a family friend near Huntsville AL (and went to the space center) we likely would have followed US 31 through Louisville and Nashville, but I don't remember the "big cities".  I do remember the Sunshine Skyway (only one span then) and US 1 through the Keys.  I don't know if it was that trip or another time, but my mom said in some areas the freeway was open but the bridges weren't all done yet, so you had to get off at every exit and then re-enter.

We only had one car, so when my mom needed it we would take my dad to work.  We'd cross the river (on the old Ann Street truss bridge) and drive down Turner.  Then get on the portion of US 131 that was open at Pearl Street, and get off the next exit at Market.

One time when I was a bit older, just for the heck of it we went west on I-96 to have a picnic at one of those new-fangled "Rest Areas".

Quote from: GaryV on March 31, 2014, 10:24:12 PM
... I do remember the Sunshine Skyway (only one span then) and US 1 through the Keys.  I don't know if it was that trip or another time, but my mom said in some areas the freeway was open but the bridges weren't all done yet, so you had to get off at every exit and then re-enter.

In the summer of 1964, I was 13 years old.  My wanderlust was well known in my family by then.  I was allowed to take a Greyhound bus (yes, by myself) from Detroit to suburban Los Angeles (and back) to visit my oldest brother.  It was the heyday of Interstate Highway construction.

One lasting memory from that trip was I-40 from Oklahoma City to Barstow.  It seemed that every city that was big enough to justify two or more exits had successfully lobbied the state DOT to delay completion of the freeway bypassing town, thus forcing through traffic (and tourist dollars) to pass through. 

I have noticed that several of those who have responded to this thread have mentioned early memories of maps.

Consequently, I am going to initiate a separate thread regarding early memories of maps.  Please join in.

My parents live about 6 hours away from my grandparents, but like to visit fairly often.  Consequently, since I was a few months old, we (my parents and I) would take a long road trip across Ontario, including going through Toronto, usually at night.  Bear in mind we would have needed to travel on Highway 401, which is quite an impressive road in Toronto.  From when I was about 4, I would always look out going through Toronto, fascinated by the infrastructure, the thousands of lights surrounding the many lanes of cars completely surrounding us, and, particularly, the signage.  This was my only exposure to an express-collector lane setup for years, so I loved looking at the different sign colours and the many odd street names.  It's also where I learned the words "express" and "collector" in the first place.  I would always try and stay awake to just look at the spectacle.
Here's an example: http://goo.gl/maps/qBX9Y
This fascination never really died, and in fact spread to all roads in general.  To this day, though, I still especially enjoy going through Toronto on the 401-everything's just so large and complex.

Quote from: US81 on March 23, 2014, 09:02:11 AM

Quote from: wxfree on March 23, 2014, 02:01:42 AM

My earliest real memory is probably going shopping in Fort Worth with my aunt.  I didn't care for shopping, but I wanted to go along for the ride.  I've always liked rural drives, but at that time seeing the city freeways was really neat.

On a slight tangent, it was a shopping trip to downtown Ft. Worth on the old Leonard's/Tandy Center subway that probably ignited my interest in mass transit & rail.

Earliest freeway memory: First road trip in our new 1960 Impala. Fort Worth, Summer of 1960 (3 yrs old) going up the top overpass in the old Downtown Mixmaster. Traveling from westbound DFW Turnpike (now I30) to southbound US81/I35W. That was a very dangerous overpass with that sharp turn it had.  :-o  I couldn't count the times a semi truck wiped out making that turn over the years. Thank God all that mess is long gone.

I vividly remember sitting in my booster seat in the front of my parents' '87 Subaru GL. Which did not have airbags, so there were no qualms about a car seat in the front seat. Ah, the things that used to be acceptable, eh?

I was in that seat in that car many a time on trips between Connecticut and The Bronx. I can still picture in my head all the old button copy signs on the Hutch which were removed in the late 90s. I remember the toll plaza on the Hutch, which was removed at the end of October 1994 (2 months before my 7th birthday). I remember the drawbridge on the New England Thruway, which was demolished in 1995 (so figure a few years before, since I remember before construction on the new bridge began). I remember noticing that heading south, the style of lights on the New England Thruway changed as you passed the toll plaza (still true today), and that the road around there started making this weird noise (because the pavement was concrete).

Most amusingly, though, I remember asking my mother once as we were driving through Westchester county on I-95 whether we were in The Bronx yet or whether we were still in Connecticut. When she told me that we were in neither, that we were in a part of New York between Connecticut and The Bronx, my mind was blown. At 3 years old (which I must have been at the time - this was definitely before I started preschool), I had no idea there were other places in the world besides Connecticut and The Bronx. :-D

When I was a bit older (preschool-elementary school) there were also a bunch of trips taken to Delaware, where I at the time had family. I remember that the toll for the whole length of the NJ Turnpike at the time was $4.60. I remember noticing that New Jersey had strange looking roads compared to what I was used to, and that Delaware had some pretty odd stuff as well - most notably Delaware's use of "mickey mouse" signal heads stood out as unique in my mind - I had never seen that configuration anywhere else.

The earliest road trip (as opposed to routine driving) that I remember was when my family went to Sesame Place and then to Strasburg, PA in 1993. I remember noticing that near Sesame Place there was an overhead sign that said "signal ahead" which flashed. It was unlike anything I had seen before, I thought it was really cool that there was such a big sign for that. I also remember that when we were on our way from Sesame Place to Strasburg that we missed the Downingtown exit off the PA Turnpike and ended up getting off at Morgantown instead.

Quote from: SquonkHunter on April 24, 2014, 11:37:47 PM

Quote from: US81 on March 23, 2014, 09:02:11 AM

Quote from: wxfree on March 23, 2014, 02:01:42 AM

My earliest real memory is probably going shopping in Fort Worth with my aunt.  I didn't care for shopping, but I wanted to go along for the ride.  I've always liked rural drives, but at that time seeing the city freeways was really neat.

On a slight tangent, it was a shopping trip to downtown Ft. Worth on the old Leonard's/Tandy Center subway that probably ignited my interest in mass transit & rail.

Earliest freeway memory: First road trip in our new 1960 Impala. Fort Worth, Summer of 1960 (3 yrs old) going up the top overpass in the old Downtown Mixmaster. Traveling from westbound DFW Turnpike (now I30) to southbound US81/I35W. That was a very dangerous overpass with that sharp turn it had.  :-o  I couldn't count the times a semi truck wiped out making that turn over the years. Thank God all that mess is long gone.

I know, I'm glad it's gone because of the danger. There was that overhead from I-30 that you mentioned and there were those tunnel-ish sharp left turns from NB - I-35 to WB I-30 and from EB I-30 to NB I-35.

...and yet -- the little kid in me loved it and misses it.

Earliest memory is probably age 4ish, we had one car and dad worked at Sprint (then United Telephone) in Carlisle.  We lived on US 11 (now bypassed) in New Kingstown.  Every day involved taking Locust Point Road over to PA 641, dropping him off, and then mom would get on North 81 at Exit 49, and off again at US 11/Exit 52.  Exit 52 is an almost-cloverleaf, and soon I picked up on the fact that there were only 7 ramps instead of 8 like the interchange at Exit 65. 

We also took yearly trips up to Watkins Glen, NY and I vaguely remember having to take NY 17 through Corning, as the bypass wasn't yet built.  We would stay at a motel near the NY 14/NY 14A "interchange" and the idea of an interchange on a state route was fascinating to me.

Some time later, I recall Dad taking me up to Skyport Road to see the section of PA 581 between Exit 1 and Exit 3 being built.  Also recall how the road ended at US 11/Carlisle Pike.  I can't imagine life without that section of PA 581 now.

I know this thread is old and going on seven years dormant, but rather than create a new one to have the same idea as this one, I would post in this.


I was the other day reminiscing my youth and how roads changed over the years, especially in New Jersey.  I always remember the old River Road/ JFK Parkway (CR 649) and NJ 24 intersection pre freeway of Route 24 on the Chatham/ Summit/ Millburn tripoint.   Of course now that particular intersection is a RIRO on EB Route 124 with CR 639 shifted westward to its current alignment.   I remember looking across NJ 24 from River Road onto JFK Parkway and seeing an office building after the road curves to disappear behind the original Mall at Short Hills. In fact I used to think the road did a full 180 around the mall at the time, but later learned it did not.

However remembering this made me look to see if that office building across the street today. It appears not as both Historic Aerials and GSV confirm it is not there anymore. 

Furthermore i also remember the original mall with only two anchors then and it being an outdoor promenade as well instead of the current indoor two level mall with now four anchors.   In addition, I remember only one signalized intersection on JFK (later two after the freeway intersection opened) unlike now with four signals.  Plus on Sundays the signal was in flash mode due to the shopping center being closed due to the now defunct blue laws that only Bergen County still has in NJ.  The original entrance was also a NB only signal on JFK as the mall exit had a merge lane from the center similar to nearby Livingston Mall onto EB CR 510 to allow free movement on one side of the roadway. Also left turning traffic from JFK to the mall drove on the left of the exit traffic to keep the signal at two phases instead of three with SB JFK being a continuous green always.

Then the mall rebuild and office complex additions changed that intersection for what it is today.  Now Canoe Brook Road is even signalized and part of the mall entrances from outside.

Anyway, this post is about road memories that spark other non road related things.  I was wondering if anyone else remembers something else as well from remembering the roads.

Sitting in the car on MA 135.