Mine was a 1983 Rand McNally.
I had a 1982 Rand McNally for Christmas. At least I think it was the 1982 edition. I do remember getting one for Christmas when I was still in elementary school.
Couldn't tell you what year, but it would have been a AAA atlas because my parents always got AAA maps and the like.
I had the five-borough New York City and Nassau County atlases from Hagstrom going back to when I was a little kid.
1950-something I found abandoned. Not sure I still have it, tough :(
UPDATE
1963 Rand McNally/State Farm Road Atlas.
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.svpply.com/large/1397459.jpg?1401144417)
I also have a 1967 with the same cover
1984 Gousha North America Road Atlas. Received as a gift from my Uncle that Christmas (the atlas catapulted my interest in roads)!. I lost the original (stupidly gave it away), but found the same copy on Ebay a few years ago and bought it again.
1990 Rand McNally (made before I was born). I think it would be cool to have a road atlas from when my dad was born and one from when my grandpa was born. There would be so many changes.
I often wonder how different the American Highway network will be when I have grandchildren. Maybe there will be a new highway system that is even better than the interstates (doubt it, but a possibility).
1988 Mapart Toronto and Area Road Atlas.
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on September 02, 2014, 12:00:37 PM
1988 Mapart Toronto and Area Road Atlas.
Are RandMcNally's common in Canada or does Canada have its own road atlas?
1966 Hagstrom NYC 5 boro Pocket Atlas
1975 Rand McNally
I think mine was a 1995 or 1996 MapArt Québec atlas. I'd follow on the map while my parents were driving as a way to entertain myself, using the signs to situate myself (or occasionally asking an annoyed parent).
It was a Hagstrom. Dense with detail, imperfect, personally and thoughtfully conceived. I miss those maps.
My first encounter with a map (and this probably doesn't count) was in the supplementary pages of a Baguio and area (+63 74) phone directory from 1998. Another thing in that phone book that interested me was the presence of ZIP code listings, e.g.
Agoo 2504
Aringay 2503
Bacnotan 2515
Bagulin 2512
Balaoan 2517
Bangar 2519
Bauang 2501
and it used to frustrate me that they were in alphabetical order, and not ZIP code order. :)
I used to have an EZ Map Philippines road atlas and an EZ Map Metro Baguio street atlas, but I seem to have misplaced them. X-( I'd probably go look for them when I go back.
As for Canadian ones, I've used a MapArt Toronto and Area and a MapArt Golden Horseshoe (which is a superset of the Toronto and Area one), but they're not mine and I have yet to get one at all. (Anyone recommend any? :P)
My first road atlas was a 2002 Campsa (now Repsol) Spain & Portugal one.
1973 Rand McNally, which I still have (I later acquired some earlier editions).
Late 90s/early 2000s Hagstrom New York atlas... I believe the second to last edition. I still have one for nostalgia purposes.
1977 AAA.
My parents had a late 1950s Rand McNally which I looked at a lot growing up and is now with me.
I wish I could find whatever happened to the contents of my parent's old map drawer, to answer this question. Probably a mid-to-late 70s Rand McNally and by the time I was really reading it a lot of interstate gaps shown on it were rapidly being completed. I remember looking at either this or some other maps in the drawer where the Commodore Barry Bridge (US 322 NJ/PA) wasn't even shown as complete. Also remember some really old Esso state maps, among other gems. One of my favorites were Franklin Maps of Gloucester County showing multiple proposed alignments of NJ 55 through the northern part of the County (single dashed as if it were to be an undivided route), along with a proposed US 322 freeway.
Quote from: US 41 on September 02, 2014, 12:21:34 PM
Quote from: AsphaltPlanet on September 02, 2014, 12:00:37 PM
1988 Mapart Toronto and Area Road Atlas.
Are RandMcNally's common in Canada or does Canada have its own road atlas?
We have RandMcNally maps, but they aren't very good. Mapart, now RouteMaster, makes much, much better maps of Canada than RandMcNally
I harangued my parents for Thomas Bros. street guides of the L.A. area. They bought me one or two. Easy Christmas present, I guess, when other kids were getting a GI Joe.
A 1970 Rand McNally. It cost the outrageous price of $1.95. Mom thought it was way too much for a then-10-year old.
1985 Rand McNally. Back in those days I would scan every page of each year's atlas, looking for new 3-digit interstates. We don't get surprised like that anymore.
Probably a 1996 Rand McNally. The map that made the most impact on me was an AAA map of the LA freeway system, though.
1970 Rand McNally, branded by State Farm on the front and rear covers. My Dad gave it to me when I was eleven years old in the hope that I would, for the love of God, stop picking up free maps by the handful at every gas station. When the free maps ended, I started buying the Rand every year with my allowance when it came out. Unfortunately, that first atlas is long gone, but I have nearly every one I have purchased since the late '80s, plus I have found a couple from the mid-'60s that I keep put away.
Quote from: Alex on September 02, 2014, 10:56:09 AM
1984 Gousha North America Road Atlas. Received as a gift from my Uncle that Christmas (the atlas catapulted my interest in roads)!. I lost the original (stupidly gave it away), but found the same copy on Ebay a few years ago and bought it again.
The exact same copy??? How did you manage to find the exact same copy?
I think the first road atlas I remember was an old Rand McNally that belonged to my grandfather. I think it was the 1967 edition. It had a dark green vinyl cover.
It disappeared in the mid-'90s. I think he threw it out, but maybe we'll be lucky and find this same copy on Ebay someday. (It had crayon scribbles on the first page.)
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 02:53:23 AM
Quote from: Alex on September 02, 2014, 10:56:09 AM
1984 Gousha North America Road Atlas. Received as a gift from my Uncle that Christmas (the atlas catapulted my interest in roads)!. I lost the original (stupidly gave it away), but found the same copy on Ebay a few years ago and bought it again.
The exact same copy??? How did you manage to find the exact same copy?
You never know. On my recent road trip, in Spring Valley, MN, my family was talking to a man (in his 60's?) at breakfast who was telling us how excited he was that he found his first car fully restored at a car show. He was talking to the current owner and said how he (and then his sister) used to own a car just like that but they sold it to a guy named Bob Schmob 30-40 years ago, and the current owner said "I bought this car from Bob Schmob!"
My first road atlas was a Rand McNally 1994. However, I was much more into the old 1980's ADC atlas we had for Harford, Baltimore City and County, and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland, which are the atlases I used to teach myself how to read at age 3 in 1990.
My first road atlas was a 1950 Rand McNally I discovered in my parent's credenza at the age of four. Although horribly outdated by then (1965), I was thoroughly fascinated by it. Recently found a similar copy (but in much better shape than I remember the old one being) on eBay.
IIRC, that was the only road atlas my parents ever bought. They tended to rely more on gas station road maps when they traveled (these were the days when oil companies gave away maps for free). Unfortunately, the big box of road maps we had was thrown out when we sold my parent's house in 1990 :banghead:.
Despite frequently traveling up and down the East Coast from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, my parents didn't join AAA until about 1976 - this was after a breakdown in which my sister (an AAA member) was traveling with us. I recall that, in preparing for one trip shortly thereafter, my parents got maps and a TripTik. Comparing the TripTik routing against the road maps. my father and I proceeded to plot a better route than AAA recommended.
Brand new 1977 Rand McN for my 8th birthday.
I still remembering tracing the routings of all the US routes trying to figure out where they went...
Mapmikey
Quote from: roadman on September 03, 2014, 07:30:33 AM
....
IIRC, that was the only road atlas my parents ever bought. They tended to rely more on gas station road maps when they traveled (these were the days when oil companies gave away maps for free). Unfortunately, the big box of road maps we had was thrown out when we sold my parent's house in 1990 :banghead:.
Despite frequently traveling up and down the East Coast from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, my parents didn't join AAA until about 1976 - this was after a breakdown in which my sister (an AAA member) was traveling with us. I recall that, in preparing for one trip shortly thereafter, my parents got maps and a TripTik. Comparing the TripTik routing against the road maps. my father and I proceeded to plot a better route than AAA recommended.
I feel your pain. I had a box of old maps in the bottom of my bedroom closet when I was in high school, one of which showed the I-270 Spur in Maryland as I-470 and another that showed the proposed routings of I-95 through the District of Columbia and the George Washington Parkway outside the Capital Beltway. Went off to college and never saw the maps again; I suspect my mother threw them out when cleaning up my old room to turn it into a home office.
My mom used to get a Triptik when we were going on vacation until my father told her to quit it. He didn't like them because they don't give you the bigger picture of an area and don't help a lot with finding an alternate route if there's traffic or if you're simply bored with the Interstate.
Commenting on this reminds me of the last time I was in New York with my parents, four years ago for a family reunion. I hitched a ride up with them and took the Acela back home. While there, we went to Peter Luger's for dinner and my father decided to head back to the hotel in Sheepshead Bay through the streets rather than on the highway.....but, even though he grew up in Flatbush, he was blanking on the route. I wound up navigating with their Hagstrom atlas (they do not have a sat-nav and none of us had a smartphone yet). Tell you what, the Hagstrom maps are fun to look at when you're not in the car, but they're far from ideal for navigating on the fly.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 02:53:23 AM
Quote from: Alex on September 02, 2014, 10:56:09 AM
1984 Gousha North America Road Atlas. Received as a gift from my Uncle that Christmas (the atlas catapulted my interest in roads)!. I lost the original (stupidly gave it away), but found the same copy on Ebay a few years ago and bought it again.
The exact same copy??? How did you manage to find the exact same copy?
Meh you got me. It had the same cover that the original had and I almost immediately recognized it when I saw it on Ebay. My original was so used the first 10 or so pages were gone, including the cover.
That happened to my 1985 Rmcn too, which I still have.
Quote from: Alex on September 03, 2014, 09:39:31 AM
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 02:53:23 AM
Quote from: Alex on September 02, 2014, 10:56:09 AM
1984 Gousha North America Road Atlas. Received as a gift from my Uncle that Christmas (the atlas catapulted my interest in roads)!. I lost the original (stupidly gave it away), but found the same copy on Ebay a few years ago and bought it again.
The exact same copy??? How did you manage to find the exact same copy?
Meh you got me. It had the same cover that the original had and I almost immediately recognized it when I saw it on Ebay. My original was so used the first 10 or so pages were gone, including the cover.
That happened to my 1985 Rmcn too, which I still have.
Heh. Your comment makes me think of a Mad Magazine cartoon in which the woman accuses her husband of taking someone else's umbrella at a restaurant. He says, "No, this is mine. I recognize its weight in my hand and the feel and shape of the handle. [Next panel:] Plus, this one is in a lot better shape."
A Hagstrom map of Fairfield County, CT. Was old, my parents bought a new one. I got to keep the old one. I don't still have it, it was scribbled all over and fell apart from being tossed around by an excited child years ago.
Indeed, while I still do have most of the maps I collected in my youth, none of them are in any sort of decent condition since every last one of them was drawn all over with me adding fictitious new roads and stuff.
A Delorme's Florida Gazetteer (1989 edition) back in 1995. My first nationwide map was a 1996 Rand McNally Road Atlas, bought a few months later.
When I was younger, I collected a few leftover Dolph's Maps of Florida, counties, and some cities, but I think they're all long gone now.
Has anybody NEVER owned a road atlas? It's possible some of the newer generation grew up with online mapping and didn't use paper maps at all.
Quote from: bugo on September 03, 2014, 10:17:55 PM
Has anybody NEVER owned a road atlas? It's possible some of the newer generation grew up with online mapping and didn't use paper maps at all.
It won't happen in my house. I've made sure my 5 year old has his own atlas (Rand McNally kid's version) in the car, and he looks at it a lot, "navigating" our trips. The regular version is also an arm's length away in the back seat (or from the toilet at home, for that matter), for when he's ready to step it up. He also knows where Daddy keeps the map collection, passing on the map drawer tradition. He's gonna know where he's going.
Not sure why they have a children's version. I guess they remove all the dirty parts or something.
In my day, all we had was the grownup version, and that was good enough.
Also, I know I have the 1987 AAA Road Atlas, and I think the notes at the beginning encourage folks to use the road atlas to teach their kids the 50 states.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 11:05:55 PM
Not sure why they have a children's version. I guess they remove all the dirty parts or something.
In my day, all we had was the grownup version, and that was good enough.
It's a little smaller and easier for him to hold, and I think it has stuff for him to color, etc. opposite each state map. The grownup version is always at his disposal as well.
Quote from: bugo on September 03, 2014, 10:17:55 PM
Has anybody NEVER owned a road atlas? It's possible some of the newer generation grew up with online mapping and didn't use paper maps at all.
Me. :-/ I want one so fucking badly though. I was too concentrated on video games and whatnot for Christmas to ask for that too, and with the advent of Google Maps I kinda was just like...meh.
Quote from: Zeffy on September 04, 2014, 12:41:28 AM
Quote from: bugo on September 03, 2014, 10:17:55 PM
Has anybody NEVER owned a road atlas? It's possible some of the newer generation grew up with online mapping and didn't use paper maps at all.
Me. :-/ I want one so fucking badly though. I was too concentrated on video games and whatnot for Christmas to ask for that too, and with the advent of Google Maps I kinda was just like...meh.
No Maps!? Seize him!
You, sir, need at the very least a Rand McNally or possibly two for home (bathroom reading) and on the road. Supplement this with county maps for your area, and some state maps too (free PA state map highly recommended, not sure if NJ still gives them out). Maybe for Christmas the forum will write to Santa to visit Zeffy with an atlas.
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on September 04, 2014, 12:54:16 AM
No Maps!? Seize him!
You, sir, need at the very least a Rand McNally or possibly two for home (bathroom reading) and on the road. Supplement this with county maps for your area, and some state maps too (free PA state map highly recommended, not sure if NJ still gives them out). Maybe for Christmas the forum will write to Santa to visit Zeffy with an atlas.
Well, for NJ maps, I do have one I snagged from visitnj.org. I am building more of a map collection though, but I can't seem to find any for New York State (already have the City), among others. Here's what the map from visitnj.org looks like:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FjmmVCbN.png&hash=8f0f40039c9c0d431d2c088b0d276c95a19f6df9)
Note: The map shows the whole state of New Jersey, I just zoomed in on TrentonUnfortunately, there's no way in hell I would be able to print that without losing 99% of the ink in my printer.
Quote from: Zeffy on September 04, 2014, 12:41:28 AM
Quote from: bugo on September 03, 2014, 10:17:55 PM
Has anybody NEVER owned a road atlas? It's possible some of the newer generation grew up with online mapping and didn't use paper maps at all.
Me. :-/ I want one so fucking badly though. I was too concentrated on video games and whatnot for Christmas to ask for that too, and with the advent of Google Maps I kinda was just like...meh.
No offense, but if you want one, why don't you go to a bookstore or somewhere and buy one? I was at Barnes & Noble a month or so ago and they had a number of road atlases available in the section where the travel books (Moon Handbooks, Fodor's, etc.) are shelved.
I personally prefer the spiral-bound version even though having the pages broken at the middle is mildly annoying. A spiral-bound version will lie flat better and is easier to open to "half-size" by flipping the cover and pages around without having to crack the spine severely.
Looking at Zeffy's post with the map of Trenton prompts me to think of something: Does anyone know why some atlases–AAA ones always did this–have the roads "narrow," for lack of a better term, when they pass through a city? An example would be the section of the New Jersey Turnpike seen in green on the map Zeffy posted. On a AAA map, that green road would narrow down to a much tighter spacing as it passes through the yellow area and then widen back out on the other end. I might have thought the idea would be that narrower lines allow for fitting more detail into an urban area except that the AAA maps I grew up with didn't usually have that much more detail in said areas (instead, they often had LESS detail and you referred to an inset if you wanted more).
I hope Kurumi doesn't mind my borrowing this image from his site. Notice the segments of H-1 and H-201 passing through the yellow area:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kurumi.com%2Froads%2F3di%2Fpics%2Fmap-h201.jpg&hash=b1cc52e270788811b5b1f546ea5205af4ed6f9c7)
(The map Zeffy posted reminds me a lot of a AAA map. I still have a bit of a soft spot for those because they're the most familiar ones to me, even though the atlas I use to highlight places I've been is a Rand McNally.)
New York doesn't have an official official state map, but the MapWorks state map is the unofficial official state map, which is just fine, because MapWorks is awesome. In fact, their maps are so awesome that the Eastern NY atlas American Maps published (which is now out of print) using their data is worth over $400 on Amazon.
Regarding the kids atlas, I think its meant more as a roadtrip distraction than anything else, hence the coloring pages etc.
IMO Rand McNally is overrated. Judging by the threads here, they might just have as many errors as Google.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 11:05:55 PM
Not sure why they have a children's version. I guess they remove all the dirty parts or something.
In my day, all we had was the grownup version, and that was good enough.
They remove Blueball, Intercourse, Climax, and Hell from the map, and make Florida look like less of a limp penis.
Quote from: vdeane on September 04, 2014, 12:49:06 PM
Regarding the kids atlas, I think its meant more as a roadtrip distraction than anything else, hence the coloring pages etc.
IMO Rand McNally is overrated. Judging by the threads here, they might just have as many errors as Google.
Rand McNally is indeed overrated, and has lots of errors. It just happens to be sold everywhere, and it's cheap (at Walmart and Target at least), so I can walk out with a bunch and put them anywhere a map might be needed. Agreed also that the kid version is a roadtrip distraction, and a good one too. Whatever works on a roadtrip, and if he's looking at maps, all the better.
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 04, 2014, 11:38:37 AM
Looking at Zeffy's post with the map of Trenton prompts me to think of something: Does anyone know why some atlases–AAA ones always did this–have the roads "narrow," for lack of a better term, when they pass through a city?
This concept goes back a ways... 1935 VDOT County maps do this with the incorporated cities...(some of the 1932 county maps do as well but not all of them)
I cannot come up with a non-road geek reason to do this. The road geek benefit with the VDOT maps is that it makes it easier to see if primary routes made small turns with the city limits.
Mapmikey
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 04, 2014, 11:38:37 AM
Looking at Zeffy's post with the map of Trenton prompts me to think of something: Does anyone know why some atlases–AAA ones always did this–have the roads "narrow," for lack of a better term, when they pass through a city? An example would be the section of the New Jersey Turnpike seen in green on the map Zeffy posted. On a AAA map, that green road would narrow down to a much tighter spacing as it passes through the yellow area and then widen back out on the other end. I might have thought the idea would be that narrower lines allow for fitting more detail into an urban area except that the AAA maps I grew up with didn't usually have that much more detail in said areas (instead, they often had LESS detail and you referred to an inset if you wanted more).
Gousha cartography regularly did this. It was to improve legibility in built up areas.
(//www.aaroads.com/forum_images/midwest/ne_ohio_map.jpg)
Earlier additions included some ICBoxes, but later atlases, especially those in the 80's, omitted those.
Quote from: Brandon on September 04, 2014, 01:11:47 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 11:05:55 PM
Not sure why they have a children's version. I guess they remove all the dirty parts or something.
In my day, all we had was the grownup version, and that was good enough.
They remove Blueball, Intercourse, Climax, and Hell from the map, and make Florida look like less of a limp penis.
So what makes them think that Florida as an
erect penis is more kid-friendly? :)
Quote from: theline on September 04, 2014, 05:48:41 PM
Quote from: Brandon on September 04, 2014, 01:11:47 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on September 03, 2014, 11:05:55 PM
Not sure why they have a children's version. I guess they remove all the dirty parts or something.
In my day, all we had was the grownup version, and that was good enough.
They remove Blueball, Intercourse, Climax, and Hell from the map, and make Florida look like less of a limp penis.
So what makes them think that Florida as an erect penis is more kid-friendly? :)
Haha, well it is Florida...but semi-seriously, they just make it a little less flaccid :)
I had a Rand McNally kids atlas, and it was seriously my favorite book. I didn't mention it because it wasn't my first atlas, but a present :) In addition to maps (which were less detailed - I guess to make them easier to read), they had "state facts" for each state and DC (state motto, state flower, etc.) as well as activities (like coloring, connect the dots, etc.). I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere.
iPhone
Quote from: 1995hoo on September 04, 2014, 11:38:37 AM
No offense, but if you want one, why don't you go to a bookstore or somewhere and buy one? I was at Barnes & Noble a month or so ago and they had a number of road atlases available in the section where the travel books (Moon Handbooks, Fodor's, etc.) are shelved.
Money. I doth not have it. Well, I do, but I'm not spending any of it until I acquire a car for myself, and since I have <$1000 I probably won't have any left.
I know I'm young, but let me just say it was a 2000s-era ADC map of PWC, I guess. :P
Quote from: Laura on September 04, 2014, 06:55:20 PM
I had a Rand McNally kids atlas, and it was seriously my favorite book. I didn't mention it because it wasn't my first atlas, but a present :) In addition to maps (which were less detailed - I guess to make them easier to read), they had "state facts" for each state and DC (state motto, state flower, etc.) as well as activities (like coloring, connect the dots, etc.). I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere.
iPhone
I had one of these as a kid also, it's still around somewhere in stuff that I saved from my childhood. I know it wasn't my first, I honestly don't remember which one in my collection was my first. Probably either a Rand McNally 50 state atlas (adult version) or a local atlas of my home county of Morris Co. NJ
I also had one of those. One of the first things I noticed is that they didn't include NY 12 north of Watertown.
I was five years old, and it was a pocket-sized Rand McNally. I don't remember much more about it.
I do not remember much about it, but my first atlas was a Rand McNally from the early 2000s (maybe even late 90s). My parents must've gotten it about the time I was a baby or before I was born for directions on trips (now I am their atlas :-D ). Then at an early age I found the atlas and learned about where all the roads were and where they went. Had it for a long time, until about '08 or '09, but somehow it disappeared, and I got a new atlas (2009 Rand McNally), and I've had that since, though it's a little torn up today. I use Google Maps a lot now, since you can see a lot more, having the option to zoom out and zoom in, and it can be portable on my phone. It's one of the most used apps on my phone, and it's on the desktop of my laptop. But I'll always love my beloved atlases. :D
Quote from: signalman on September 05, 2014, 03:25:24 AM
Quote from: Laura on September 04, 2014, 06:55:20 PM
I had a Rand McNally kids atlas, and it was seriously my favorite book. I didn't mention it because it wasn't my first atlas, but a present :) In addition to maps (which were less detailed - I guess to make them easier to read), they had "state facts" for each state and DC (state motto, state flower, etc.) as well as activities (like coloring, connect the dots, etc.). I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere.
iPhone
I had one of these as a kid also, it's still around somewhere in stuff that I saved from my childhood. I know it wasn't my first, I honestly don't remember which one in my collection was my first. Probably either a Rand McNally 50 state atlas (adult version) or a local atlas of my home county of Morris Co. NJ
I had one as well. It was basically an Americana/road trip themed coloring and activity book with smaller and not-very detailed maps of each state included. Repeatedly appearing as the tour guide/mascot was this kid named "Randy McNally" (har har).
Sure as hell wasn't my favorite book, though. I already had other real maps by the time someone gave me this as a Christmas present and I thought it was lame in comparison. Not because of the activities and such but because the maps were small and lacked detail.
A lot of the maps of my childhood were Street Atlases by Hagstrom and its sister companies elsewhere in the Northeast. Hagstrom used to have a store in Manhattan where they sold nothing but maps. My father took me to it one time. That might have been the happiest day of my childhood. :biggrin:
I do also have from those days a bunch of US road atlases, world atlases, and some maps of Europe provided by family that went on trips.
The biggest oddity of my collection, though, is that I have a boatload of old USGS topo quadrangle maps from the 1970s and 80s. I ended up with them because one of my teachers in high school had a boyfriend who worked for an aerial mapping company, which he attended the school career fair on behalf of. At said career fair he met this crazy kid who was obsessed with maps (*ahem*). His company had a room full of old stuff they were looking to clear out because they no longer had any use for it. And he figured hey, one man's trash...
My father would buy a new Rand McNally atlas every few years or so, and the very first one I had was the 1971 version (which came out one year after I had been born), which I would mark up with new highways of my own. And a tradition was born, that whenever he bought a new atlas, I could then have the old one to do whatever I wanted with.
Quote from: Henry on September 08, 2014, 10:56:44 AM
My father would buy a new Rand McNally atlas every few years or so, and the very first one I had was the 1971 version (which came out one year after I had been born), which I would mark up with new highways of my own. And a tradition was born, that whenever he bought a new atlas, I could then have the old one to do whatever I wanted with.
Public libraries usually don't let folks borrow reference books, but ours used to let people borrow the previous year's road atlas. I remember once around 1978, my folks borrowed the library's year-old Rand McNally for a trip. It was the edition where the background for the maps was gray instead of white. I remember getting in my parents' car on the last day of school and seeing the library's road atlas sitting there on the seat.
In terms of road atlas, the first one I actually purchased new was the 1979 edition of Rand McNally's Interstate Road Atlas; the mid-size version not the large version. A year or two earlier, I found an old 1969 version of the same atlas (from either my parents or my grandfather) laying around somewhere.
OTOH, in terms of road maps: There's an old '67-'68 pic of me looking over a Phillips 66 road map that my grandmother was holding. If I ever find it, I'll scan it (the photo, sadly not the map) and possibly post it. One new map I picked up at a gas station for free (but later lost) was a 1972 or 1973 edition Phillips 66/Rand McNally map of Boston & Vicinity. That's when I first learned about the proposed I-95 alignment through Lynn (that never got built).
My dad gave me a Texaco Touring Atlas when I was 10 or 11. I had already accumulated a small collection of road maps by then. I think the atlas was the 1968 one; I remember it having a few Stuckey's ads in it. I don't remember the cover, though - that thing fell off thanks to rough handling. I had it for many years, and decided to pitch it one time when I had to move (wish I hadn't). Not long ago, I found a '65 Texaco Touring Atlas in near-mint condition. I'm still looking out for a replacement '68 TTA with its cover still intact.
Mine was a 1990 Los Angeles County & Orange County Thomas Bros highway street guide.
Anyone remember the Graphic Street Guides put out by Metro Graphic Arts? They were black-and-white street maps of urban areas (mostly in the Midwest) "in convenient book form." I remember having the Graphic Street Guide of Northern Kentucky back in my day.
Quote from: jfs1988 on September 09, 2014, 04:49:58 AM
Mine was a 1990 Los Angeles County & Orange County Thomas Bros highway street guide.
Mine was also a Los Angeles/Orange County map book from about 1963 which my parents gave me sometime in the early '70s when they got a new one. Shows you how far back I go. :colorful:
Quote from: dave19 on September 08, 2014, 11:04:23 PM
My dad gave me a Texaco Touring Atlas when I was 10 or 11. I had already accumulated a small collection of road maps by then. I think the atlas was the 1968 one; I remember it having a few Stuckey's ads in it. I don't remember the cover, though - that thing fell off thanks to rough handling. I had it for many years, and decided to pitch it one time when I had to move (wish I hadn't). Not long ago, I found a '65 Texaco Touring Atlas in near-mint condition. I'm still looking out for a replacement '68 TTA with its cover still intact.
Thanks for the reminder about the Texaco Touring Atlas. I had forgotten all about it. My first atlas was just a regular Rand McNally that I found a bookshelf at home when I was probably 5 or so. I wore it out, so my parents had no choice but to replace it. I eventually persuaded them to upgrade to the Texaco atlas. It had great tourist information for the pre-internet era. They supported my habit, since it paid dividends with my free tour guide advice on our summer vacations.
The first atlas I owned was a 1981 HM Gousha Atlas I got for Christmas when I was 10. I kept it for years(with about the first and last 10 pages or so off, plus several loose in the middle)-but it eventually got thrown away I think. I liked their cartography the best(still do-wish they still were around).
I always liked maps better when I was little. Atlases seemed like they were for other people. I swiped one of those really stripped down pocket atlases Reader's Digest put out in '87 or '88 from my folks which of course didn't improve my opinion of atlases. I probably got a full size RMcN in 1992, but I don't even know if I keep it with my boxes of maps. The Huntington WV library was giving away a bunch of maps from other states and provinces in the mid-2000s which also decreased my motivation to guard my one full-size national atlas.
1984 Rand McNally road atlas. I remember I-40 having bits of the yellow-orange (4 lane divided highway - no controlled access) on areas east of Albuquerque, and also through McClean TX, and of course, the under construction area east of Kingman and west of Seligman). Sadly, the atlas got damaged and then sent to the trash. :(
I don't remember who made it or what year it was (probably 1977), but my grandparents had one that had a back cover with the symbol and all-text diamond warning signs. I used to quiz relatives all the time on what went with what.
Next was a 1984 Rand McNally that I got by saving boxtops from NutriGrain cereal, a fave of mine back then.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 09, 2014, 01:10:53 PM
Anyone remember the Graphic Street Guides put out by Metro Graphic Arts? They were black-and-white street maps of urban areas (mostly in the Midwest) "in convenient book form." I remember having the Graphic Street Guide of Northern Kentucky back in my day.
I had one of those, too ... it was the only map available anywhere that showed the street I grew up on. :bigass:
My first was a 1993 Rand McNally road atlas (I was not alive back then). I forgot the story on how I got it, but I think I may have found it from my parents putting the atlas on a table in my new house after moving from Portland, Oregon. It is still with me today.
Quote from: capt.ron on October 19, 2014, 04:57:43 PM
1984 Rand McNally road atlas. I remember I-40 having bits of the yellow-orange (4 lane divided highway - no controlled access) on areas east of Albuquerque, and also through McClean TX, and of course, the under construction area east of Kingman and west of Seligman). Sadly, the atlas got damaged and then sent to the trash. :(
It always bugged the hell out of me when road atlases got ruined.
I think what some people here are referring to is the smaller version of the Rand McNally Road Atlas that was sometimes seen in the '70s and '80s, especially as part of a promotion for some other product. This smaller version had less detail and omitted the county lines and smaller roads.
I had one that was from a promotion for Freshen-Up gum. It had the Freshen-Up logo on the cover. I don't know where we got it, because we seldom chewed this brand o' BG. One of few times I remember seeing Freshen-Up in our house was around 1980 when a dentist recommended it to a family member. I burst out laughing when I saw it. If it was just labeled as "chewing gum", it wouldn't have been so funny, but this was labeled as "bubble gum", which was downright uproarious.
1997 Greenville County, S.C. atlas from the Irmo-based Accurate Maps and Atlases, which is no longer in existence. It would have been the company's 30th anniversary this year.
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2p2ZZfadVqhFMncpPXzm_NE7vUHS_HKVyw5EF_ifFELqxJ_LmbjzJP7x2098PvaZH7R2Kk-rzN7QS3MsyOMaBIpA9p2TKCFpBSpF9SzEbB0ww/WP_20141031_012.jpg?psid=1)
The inside of one of the pages:
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2pS4t4oCza_i2LtYDn6r_Wd4dCOil3XbfpX1l87GNt5FDBV9xvoIgWOPjWyAhmikLK1BUMYv0IuAQ9FCLFPQyXTqtWwiLM5X7VlA_POaogWUw/WP_20141031.jpg?psid=1)
1980 Rand McNally. I can even remember sitting and laying on the couch on several occasions looking through it.
Quote from: mjb2002 on October 31, 2014, 09:02:10 PM
1997 Greenville County, S.C. atlas from the Irmo-based Accurate Maps and Atlases, which is no longer in existence. It would have been the company's 30th anniversary this year.
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2p2ZZfadVqhFMncpPXzm_NE7vUHS_HKVyw5EF_ifFELqxJ_LmbjzJP7x2098PvaZH7R2Kk-rzN7QS3MsyOMaBIpA9p2TKCFpBSpF9SzEbB0ww/WP_20141031_012.jpg?psid=1)
The inside of one of the pages:
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2pS4t4oCza_i2LtYDn6r_Wd4dCOil3XbfpX1l87GNt5FDBV9xvoIgWOPjWyAhmikLK1BUMYv0IuAQ9FCLFPQyXTqtWwiLM5X7VlA_POaogWUw/WP_20141031.jpg?psid=1)
Both images are broken.
1966 Rand McNally Atlas. I was seven and I had to have it! I spent hours poring over it...
My dad's Rand McNally from 85 or 86.
My parents had an old Rand McNally road atlas from the 1970s. I think the first Rand McNally atlas I got myself was in the early 1990s.
About 1975 or 1974 Alexandria Drafting Company atlases of Montgomery County, Maryland and Prince George's County, Maryland.
1986 Hagstrom of Nassau County. First US atlas was 1992 Rand McNally.
I went to the Indiana State University library today. I found RandMcnally road atlases from 2002 all the way back to 1959. There are several really interesting things I found. In the 60's they al showed Central America (some of the early 60 atlases showed a proposed road from Panama to Colombia. The 1962 showed the proposed routing of I-64 going through central Ilinois and across Indiana alongside US 50 / US 150. One of them showed a road map of Cuba and showed a car ferry from Key West to Havana (it must've been before the embargo).
Quote from: cpzilliacus on November 12, 2014, 10:55:25 PM
About 1975 or 1974 Alexandria Drafting Company atlases of Montgomery County, Maryland and Prince George's County, Maryland.
Those things were invaluable when I lived in PG County in the early 80s. I had several in my car just in case: Montgomery, PG, Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore County; plus Fairfax and Stafford counties as well as Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia.
Quote from: Alex on November 01, 2014, 12:21:48 PM
Quote from: mjb2002 on October 31, 2014, 09:02:10 PM
1997 Greenville County, S.C. atlas from the Irmo-based Accurate Maps and Atlases, which is no longer in existence. It would have been the company's 30th anniversary this year.
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2p2ZZfadVqhFMncpPXzm_NE7vUHS_HKVyw5EF_ifFELqxJ_LmbjzJP7x2098PvaZH7R2Kk-rzN7QS3MsyOMaBIpA9p2TKCFpBSpF9SzEbB0ww/WP_20141031_012.jpg?psid=1)
The inside of one of the pages:
(https://e0atbw-sn3301.files.1drv.com/y2pS4t4oCza_i2LtYDn6r_Wd4dCOil3XbfpX1l87GNt5FDBV9xvoIgWOPjWyAhmikLK1BUMYv0IuAQ9FCLFPQyXTqtWwiLM5X7VlA_POaogWUw/WP_20141031.jpg?psid=1)
Both images are broken.
Ok. I decided to upload the images into Picasa.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iJJrbp9Lytc/VHLlAWU8PQI/AAAAAAAAG2U/HKidkGdRR20/s512/WP_20141031_012.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hf4vwGl01Tc/VHLkzzl_DjI/AAAAAAAAG2M/sG-dECNMLUI/s800/WP_20141031.jpg)
Alert me if these images are broken and I'll try to fix them (yet) again.
I still have my 1982 Rand McNally upon which I drew various updates, like the finishing of 95 in Florida.
I also have a few of those AAA tour books, since my grandmother was a travel agent. They're not really atlases, but they had plenty of maps in them. They looked like this https://img0.etsystatic.com/036/0/6293017/il_340x270.638475502_c0v8.jpg
1996 Rand McNally.
First street atlas: Wunnenburgs 1995 Saint Louis County Street Guide.
Never owned an atlas (always had a GPS).
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on January 12, 2015, 06:45:00 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 12, 2015, 04:29:51 PM
Never owned an atlas (always had a GPS).
Seize him!
I don't need one mate. I don't see the reason for it. Historic Aerials has all the atlas' that I'd ever need to look at.
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 03:17:42 AM
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on January 12, 2015, 06:45:00 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 12, 2015, 04:29:51 PM
Never owned an atlas (always had a GPS).
Seize him!
I don't need one mate. I don't see the reason for it. Historic Aerials has all the atlas' that I'd ever need to look at.
Unacceptable. Please report to your local Walmart or Target and pick up a Rand McNally 2015. All roadnuts are required to have an atlas or at least a road map of some type. I can't imagine not having one in the magazine basket in the bathroom.
Ever since I got my atlases from a friend, I have balanced between my phone for checking the forums and looking at the atlases while I go the bathroom.
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 03:17:42 AM
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on January 12, 2015, 06:45:00 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 12, 2015, 04:29:51 PM
Never owned an atlas (always had a GPS).
Seize him!
I don't need one mate. I don't see the reason for it. Historic Aerials has all the atlas' that I'd ever need to look at.
Because online maps have shitty cartography?
Quote from: bugo on January 13, 2015, 04:20:11 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 03:17:42 AM
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on January 12, 2015, 06:45:00 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 12, 2015, 04:29:51 PM
Never owned an atlas (always had a GPS).
Seize him!
I don't need one mate. I don't see the reason for it. Historic Aerials has all the atlas' that I'd ever need to look at.
Because online maps have shitty cartography?
That's purely subjective.
Ahem, Bland McCrappy?
Quote from: NE2 on January 13, 2015, 05:19:10 PM
Ahem, Bland McCrappy?
It's cheap and easy to find, despite the errors and poor updating. Good enough for bathroom reading and the car.
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on January 13, 2015, 08:42:24 PM
Quote from: NE2 on January 13, 2015, 05:19:10 PM
Ahem, Bland McCrappy?
It's cheap and easy to find, despite the errors and poor updating. Good enough for bathroom reading and the car.
Is it any better than Google Maps?
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 08:47:35 PM
Is it any better than Google Maps?
For small scale use, yes.
Quote from: NE2 on January 13, 2015, 09:11:02 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 08:47:35 PM
Is it any better than Google Maps?
For small scale use, yes.
Well, let's say I'm trying to find a Future Shop. I don't think Rand McNally is going to help me.
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 10:35:11 PM
Quote from: NE2 on January 13, 2015, 09:11:02 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on January 13, 2015, 08:47:35 PM
Is it any better than Google Maps?
For small scale use, yes.
Well, let's say I'm trying to find a Future Shop. I don't think Rand McNally is going to help me.
Actually if you press hard enough on the atlas, a search box will pop up on page 63. The new versions are pretty high-tech.
I'm not suggesting an atlas or road map as a replacement for Google, etc., but a good roadnut should have all the tools in his or her arsenal, including good old hard copy maps. I think atlases provide the best quick overview of a state or portions thereof. When it's time for detail, online you go.
I don't remember my first one but my last one was a 1953 I found at the antique mall for $10. Was just shocked he only wanted $10.
I don't think I ever had an atlas, per se... However, my first road maps were an odd source: My local telephone book. I would eagerly await the regular updates to the area phone books to see if there were new or expanded maps–for most of my youth, we got new phone books twice a year. (Apparently, Las Vegas, due to the constant influx of people, was one of the few major cities that published twice a year. Now that they have two volumes, the maps are only done once a year.) I credit most of my pre-driving knowledge of the Las Vegas area street system to this avid review of phone book maps.
^Those were never my favorite maps, but they required little effort to obtain. I gave them some time for that reason. Before I discovered DeLorme books they were good for more detail than state maps.
I should mention that I exempt DeLorme from my general distaste for atlases as opposed to maps. I might not make it to every rural city hall for more detailed maps of counties I don't live near especially these days where my road trip time is very limited. And every time I stay in a motel in non-party mode I check out the phone book. Unfortunately it seems phone book maps have gone downhill or even absent in many towns.
The Rochester phone books used MapWorks for their map data, so the maps in them were quite good, often being more recent than the latest MapWorks atlas (but covering a smaller area).
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 15, 2015, 11:08:54 PM
I should mention that I exempt DeLorme from my general distaste for atlases as opposed to maps.
What's wrong with atlases?
Quote from: roadfro on January 15, 2015, 11:01:12 PM
I don't think I ever had an atlas, per se... However, my first road maps were an odd source: My local telephone book. I would eagerly await the regular updates to the area phone books to see if there were new or expanded maps–for most of my youth, we got new phone books twice a year. (Apparently, Las Vegas, due to the constant influx of people, was one of the few major cities that published twice a year. Now that they have two volumes, the maps are only done once a year.) I credit most of my pre-driving knowledge of the Las Vegas area street system to this avid review of phone book maps.
The Cincinnati area Yellow Pages had local street maps. In the '80s, they weren't so great. Each road was a thin gray line, regardless of what type of road. And the maps were frequently wrong.
Later, the Yellow Pages started using much better maps.
Quote from: vdeane on January 16, 2015, 12:46:38 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 15, 2015, 11:08:54 PM
I should mention that I exempt DeLorme from my general distaste for atlases as opposed to maps.
What's wrong with atlases?
Maps are bigger.
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 16, 2015, 10:47:02 PM
Quote from: vdeane on January 16, 2015, 12:46:38 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 15, 2015, 11:08:54 PM
I should mention that I exempt DeLorme from my general distaste for atlases as opposed to maps.
What's wrong with atlases?
Maps are bigger.
Actually, atlases usually have more surface area than maps.
My first favorite road atlas was a 1997 AAA atlas with spiral binding. I think I saw it recently in the garage even.
Quote from: NE2 on January 16, 2015, 11:46:16 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 16, 2015, 10:47:02 PM
Quote from: vdeane on January 16, 2015, 12:46:38 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on January 15, 2015, 11:08:54 PM
I should mention that I exempt DeLorme from my general distaste for atlases as opposed to maps.
What's wrong with atlases?
Maps are bigger.
Actually, atlases usually have more surface area than maps.
Well yeah, because they usually cover more real estate but in lesser detail and/or on a smaller scale.
Huh? It's generally the opposite (ignoring national atlases) - the atlas covers everything in more detail at a larger scale than the fold-out map. My Jimapco NY atlas shows every street in NY, and my MapWorks regional atlases show every major one; a fold-out map will only show you the most major roads at the state level. At the city level, the detail is the same, but the area covered is not - a fold-out map will focus on the city itself and maybe the closest suburbs. An atlas will usually show the entire metro.
I mean individual state maps vs. entire U.S. atlases, not state maps vs. state atlases.
Quote from: vdeane on January 17, 2015, 03:11:42 PM
Huh? It's generally the opposite (ignoring national atlases) - the atlas covers everything in more detail at a larger scale than the fold-out map. My Jimapco NY atlas shows every street in NY, and my MapWorks regional atlases show every major one; a fold-out map will only show you the most major roads at the state level. At the city level, the detail is the same, but the area covered is not - a fold-out map will focus on the city itself and maybe the closest suburbs. An atlas will usually show the entire metro.
Jimapco is pretty good. I have their New England Road Atlas.
Until another company comes out with a cmv version of the atlas, I'm stuck with buying a Rand McNally.
The first one I remember was the 1974-ish Rand McNally (Allstate Motor Club edition). Since my dad was a member he got a new map every year, and I got the previous year's map to "play" with. I wish I still had them!