How do ya'll give/get directions in your neck of the woods?
Asked by
Val123 (
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January 25th, 2010
I lived in Wichita for a lot of years, and there it was simple. Two blocks north of Kellogg and one block east of Woodlawn, or whatever. Then I moved to this small town where often you’re given directions out to the country. This morning I got a call at 6:40 a.m. to teach in a little country school over in the next town. (I was half asleep, and this lady is telling me who she is and saying something about “C4,” and I’m going “Whaaaa….?” C4 is a plastique explosive that they used to bomb bridges and stuff in ‘Nam!) I told her I’d call her back in a minute.
Well, turns out that the school IS named C4, and here’s how you get there. “Take the bypass, then turn left at the turnabout then drive about 3½ miles and you’ll see a big farm with two big silos on the right hand side. Then turn back south for about a mile. Ya cain’t miss it.” I HATE THAT!! So, I’m driving along…do you know how many farms and silos there are in the country in Kansas??? Anyway, finally see a promising set of silo’s and turn right just before I get to the farm. Then I thought I’d best call because I didn’t know if I was supposed to turn before or after the farm.
She said, “Take the first right after the farm. There’ll be a little white pump house on the corner.” Pump house. 10–4, C4.
So I turn at the pump house just….kind of chuckling inside, and suddenly there is a beat up, old, rusted, green rectangular sign that says ”<<<<<< School.” I just cracked up! I had to park in the pasture, though cause they were doing some work in the parking lot.
Kansas. Land of Ahhhhhhshits!
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19 Answers
I live in CO. Everything is directional. Turn west on Main St. Head north on Blah Ave.
Coming from CA, I had never had to know north from east when driving.
The secret here is that the mountains are always west. I was slow figuring it out at first, but now I always know which way a direction is, even inside sometimes. It’s just become second nature.
Well, in NYC, just follow the numbers: 44th street comes before 45th. 45th comes before 46th…
really took a genius to figure that out!
“well when you get to the top of the big ass hill, take an right. Then you gotta watch cuz the left you needa take is covered by trees and its easy to miss.”
I love West Vriginia.
“Go up two blocks, then take a left on such and such a street, pass the Tim Horton’s, then take your next right”..for example.
I don’t live in a big city.
@Likeradar Aren’t the mountains great for directions? I can’t stand it when I’m in a flat state and don’t have the mountains to guide me.
Ol’ Farmer Dell’s cows are us’lly in the northeast corner of the pasture where you wanna take yer left. If they aren’t there, I don’t know what ta tell ya.
@Val123 It’s on dat there op-o-site side uh dat there pasture uh da ole chic-in coup.
why yes, I do have a little bit of red around my neck…. Why ask?
@Shield_of_Achilles LOL! Sah do I! Ya mean the chic-in coup that blowed away in that tornady in 58? Yeah, dat was a bad’un!
(Spend the next hour comparing tornado stories, which leads to crops, cows, feeshin’ and tractors, when you were supposed to be at your destination 45 minutes ago….)
@Val123 well she-oot I dun thought he rebuilt that sun beach ‘bout tree uh ford weeks go
My directions would be very much like yours @Val123 . Land marks, and “turn north” and about a mile, etc.
Also we often go by the time. “it’s about and hour South of here”.
You might get this too; “Go six miles on the tarvy then turn west and go a mile and a ½ on the dirt road.”
@wilma And do you get “Ya cain’t miss it!” a lot, too???
@Shield_of_Achilles ROFL! You’re good! Yeah, well, ya know whut a lazy coon he is. He don’t even get his crops in until ‘bout a year too late.
I was literally given directions to “turn left when you see the cows” one time. I was in the middle of dairy property. It was not helpful.
“Where do you need to go? Oh! Well you’re gonna take a right out of the parking lot then you’re going to take a left at the first light. Keep going for about 4 or 5 minutes and then you’ll see the freeway exit… blah blah blah…” I think it’s pretty common to use time rather than miles here. At least both time and miles. I’ve heard it drives people nuts…. but it’s so weird to hear someone say miles instead of the amount of time it’ll take. Landmarks, straight, left and rights are big.
It’s not always so easy to give directions in San Francisco. You might think it would be, because most of it is a grid, but the streets can be complex. The most difficult thing is remember which streets are one way and which way they are. Giving directions downtown? Forget it. You’re just going to have to look at a map. I’ve lived here for half my life and I still forget which way the one way streets go sometimes. It’s confusing.
Giving directions to my house is easier because I don’t live in a place with one way streets, but there are still lots of ways to go the wrong way. However, in a grid-like area, you can pretty much always find your way eventually.
You also have to make reference to the major streets that everyone knows: 19th, Geary, Van Ness, Market, Divisadero, Park-Presidio. You cant go wrong with those. Everyone knows where they are and where they go. And since the major streets are pretty much aligned with the cardinal directions, that makes it even easier.
@Val123 I’m usually the one saying “Ya can’t miss it.” :)
I just ask people to input my address into their GPS and then tell them to follow the on screen directions. If they don’t have a GPS, I tell them to look it up on Google maps which is highly effective also.
@wilma LOL! Wull, den you sayin’ it wrong. It’s “CAINT”, not “Can’t”!
Funny! Yesterday I was at a convenience store and about three people were trying to give an out of towner directions to a nursing home here in town (we have about 20 here in our little town!) It involved threading one’s way through residential districts, navigating dead end streets and…..well, I finally said, “I’ll lead you!” She was grateful. :)
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