I don't think this last YouTube clip from Map Men is their most interesting, but I've enjoyed and found many of clips interesting. I do love me a map, and I have rather a lot of them, loose maps, and as here, my street directories, which I think in England are called A to Z. I don't know what they were called in America. In Melbourne we turned the brand name Melways into a generic name. They are a bit of history now, and that's why I keep what I have. Real estate agents added a Melway reference map number and grid reference to their property advertisements.
Just before Google maps came to the fore, with a new car we were presented a small Melbourne street directory. While not pocket sized, it was small enough to carry in my backpack when I went out. I used it a few times. Very soon, Google maps on my phone made it redundant.
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So yes, I have a number of street directories. This is the oldest and it was my grandfather's I guess published in the 1940s. It is brilliant for old tram and train lines that no longer exist, along with lost streets, like the delightfully name Sloss Street that ran along the frontage of what is now the School of the Arts Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Building.
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This 1934 Gregory's reproduction edition is terrific as it shows Sydney tram system at perhaps its full extent.
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Edition 29 of Melways I used to mark all of Melbourne's former tram and train lines that existed, along with the tramways in the regional cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. My step father when he was still alive checked my markings on the Geelong map for accuracy and I had done well.
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I thought I had a reproduction of the first Melways, 1966 but it seems not. It can be found online here.
I began thinking about this post last week and it then occurred to me to make a second post with my Atlases, but someone beat me to it with her atlases.
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I have a box full of maps, mostly cities I have visited. I use GPS when traveling by car. I should order maps of Bruges, I made hotel reservations yesterday.
ReplyDeleteTP, it's great that you have a collection. Bruges is lovely, as I've heard.
DeleteYou have some real treasures there. I love maps and charts.
ReplyDeleteJB, I wonder what makes us love maps? Do we like the sense of order that maps give us?
DeleteHa! When we moved here three years ago I managed to persuade P to finally throw away his old Melway map. He brought it with him when he returned to live in England back in 1979. I have no idea why he held onto it for so long.
ReplyDeleteThat would be an older Melways than my 78 edition then. Aww. I would have kept it.
DeleteNo paper maps in our house (actually not true, not that I think about it, I do have a Toronto Transit map and a PATH map, for guests) , but we do have a paper Road Atlas book in the car. GPS is great but I do like to see what/where is around us on a road trip.
ReplyDeleteJackie, it is all about the bigger picture. We want to know where we in relation to what we know.
DeleteI do like maps and still use them when walking in the country. You have a great collection there, full of memories.
ReplyDeleteFun60, your country goes the whole hog with the ordnance maps with such detail.
DeleteI used to keep a paper map in our car always. And I remember we had an atlas for a long time, big paperback book showing the USA by state and I can't remember what all. I'm not sure you can even buy paper state maps anymore. They used to be given away in service (gas) stations.
ReplyDeleteDeb, maps in service stations were cheap to buy here. Our motoring club gave out cheap street maps. I still have some of those.
DeleteIt is funny to recollect a glove box full of maps, but that was the way, wasn't it? You could pick them up at gas stations and along the interstates. It was endlessly fascinating to me as a child to follow our journey along on a map, matching the road signs up with the places on that map. I really loved that. And now, everything is done on my phone. What on earth do children do on long car rides now that there are no maps. Ah yes. They play on their Ipads as the adults consult Google Maps.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Debby, the full glove box. We did as you said, follow the maps, but that didn't stop us how much longer it would be to get to our destination. Now, kids aren't even aware they are travelling as their eyes will be glued to screens. That's a bit sad.
DeleteWe have quite a number of them here. As passenger it was my job to consult them and navigate. A job I enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteEC, a competent female navigator? Well, I never.
DeleteI love a paper map and have a lot of them. I like to see where I'm going in relation to the wide surroundings, something not so apparent on Google maps.
ReplyDeleteQuite so Pat. The bigger picture makes such a difference to road travel.
DeleteI still like paper maps but I do use gps when I have to drive someplace new. Did you work in transit Andrew?
ReplyDeletePixie, indeed I did work in public transport, for just over forty years.
DeleteI do most of the driving and still remember when my husband threw an atlas my way out of frustration. He'd more often hear about almost clocking me in the head when he annoys me if not for so many other enraging examples. lol We cherish shared laughter, though, outweighing frustrations. Be well!
ReplyDeleteDarla, I take it from that you are a better driver than you are a map reader.
DeleteI still like to look at the big picture, so to speak, when travelling even though I use google's navigating system, so I will have a gander at google maps before I leave to see where I am going.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved maps and atlases and used to draw make believe countries as a kid.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane with the old Melways. I wish I'd kept mine, now.
Make believe countries sounds interesting, Merlot. I can't imagine. A large island in the Pacific?
DeleteI think street directories in the United States are called...street directories. Or, more informally, local map book. Anyway, I'd love to browse through your maps, the older the better.
ReplyDeleteMap book sounds simple, Kirk. I hope browsing my maps, the older the better, is not a euphemism.
DeleteAs with the White Pages, I used to anticipate the arrival of a new one.
ReplyDeleteJames, my Swedish Death Cleaning has seen a few phone directories go to recycling bins. I could not think of one good reason to keep them, aside from my own name being in them, with our redundant landline number.
DeleteA few years ago I was travelling with a friend who reassured me she had "an institive knowledge for directions". I said, "Let's just use Google maps", to which she replied "No, we'll be fine". After the third time when she got us horribly lost, she finally relented. Throughout this I realised she was confusing east and west, relying on the position of the sun, and it was her first time in the Northern hemisphere. Even now, when we travel together, she never listens to the instructions and often misses the turn, or tries to turn early. Drives me crazy!
ReplyDeleteJames
DeleteI find I have to make a conscious effort to correct my ingrained assumptions or the direction and direction of movement of sun when I am in the northern hemisphere. I sometimes wonder if D, with whom I live but who grew up in the northern hemisphere, suffers from the same problem in reverse, though maybe he just has a terrible sense of direction because he's pretty unreliable in both hemispheres. (I suppose this could be because of ongoing hemisphere confusion.)
I have concluded this is an example of how such things can be habitually learned without any conscious realisation.
To give another example: milk cartons. When they first became commonplace (for me, when I was maybe 20 or so) I had to look carefully to work out which was the side at the top that you were supposed to pull out to open them and if I didn't I'd often find myself struggling with the wrong side, the one with more glue. But it is now many years (though these days I rarely buy a carton) since I had to think of it. There must be something about the carton that my brain scans to work out the correct side to pull out, but I don't even consciously know what it is.
That sounds so annoying James. A good navigator/map reader is a person to treasure. One who thinks they are but aren't isn't great at all. Ingrained into my head is that the first time we visited Bondi Junction, we arrived by train and left by a northern station exit to Oxford Street. I know that is wrong and we went south to Oxford Street Mall. Until this day, I've just checked Google Maps, this is wrong, but it is so firmly implanted in my brain. I even noticed the sun was in the wrong place, according to my brain.
DeleteMC, I blame the sun being to the south in midsummer England for me getting sunburnt twice on my first visit to England. Re our milk carton experience, how do you go opening a packet of supermarket bought sandwiches?
DeleteAdelaide used to have Gregory's, now it has UBD Gregory's, I have the 59th edition from 2021. I used to upgrade every couple of years when new streets were built and I needed to know where they were in relation to my real estate dream searches. I cover them with clear contact to protect the covers, but throw out the old ones. I don't think I'll upgrade again.
ReplyDeleteI also have several maps, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, also a mini map of Adelaide that fits into a coat pocket and I used to carry it with me to help out people who looked lost. I have an Australia Reference Map which shows Australia on one side and all the capital cities on the other side, a "Travel Safely in Australia" map with Australia (of course) on one side and information in several languages on the other side, and a State Guide from 2005, with the Premier and Greyhound buses and the routes they take to and from other towns. All are quite old with sticky tape reinforcing folds and corners. I should lay them out and take a photo.
River, you have such an interesting collection. A map that fits in a coat pocket sounds useful. I don't even know Premier buses.
DeleteThat’s a great collection you have there Andrew.
ReplyDeleteThere’s something about Google maps that’s ‘cold and impersonal’ great for telling distances and showing the way but give me a Melways anytime for really showing the big picture.
And talking of big….we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry back in 2012 when we were given matching Edition 39, Large Print Melways. They’re still here, weigh a ton and believe it or not, do come in handy now and again.
( I’m one who used to turn it round to the direction we were travelling in the car)
Cathy, I agree. We need the big picture before the finer detail. I have never been one to turn maps upside down, but strangely in the last year or two, I have been doing that, albeit rarely.
DeleteOh my ! Maps are my nightmare ! I am unable to read one, that was a big problem for Rick who wanted to us me as GPS ! I don't know where I am when I look on a map, there is nothing to do, bless the GPS, it gave me a new life ! I was like a blind person who got a dog to guide her ! Now I have no problems more to find streets, even when I walk, I just follow the voice ! I drive my car with pleasure and always arrive where I wanted to be. Before I drove over Paris to go from Brussels to Waterloo (or almost)
ReplyDeleteGattina, I know many people struggle with maps, and for you, and even me at times, GPS is wonderful.
DeleteI guess the American equivalent would be the Rand-McNally Street Atlas, which was produced for many cities, states and regions in the USA. I used to love a street atlas, and I still have an A-Z for London even though I only ever use Google Maps nowadays.
ReplyDelete