Lost and Found

I've read that Daniel Boone never forgot a path he walked or discovered.  If  he had spent any time on a path, he could always find his way back to it. More importantly, he could find his way back from it.

I am the total opposite of that.  I have absolutely no sense of direction. If my GPS says to head north on highway 67 instead of to turn right or left, I have to stop and use the compass on my phone to know which direction to go.  Early or late in the day when our major star is low in the sky, I can figure it out pretty well.  Other than that I need the help of a compass.

One of my  former jobs involved  calling on people in their homes. Usually I made these calls during normal business hours or early evening, but sometimes I found myself in homes rather late.  Many years before GPS,  leaving late from a home on Signal Mountain, Tennessee, I got lost trying to find my way out of a large subdivision. I was so turned around I couldn't even find my way back to their house to ask directions. And I wasn't going to knock on a stranger's door at that  late hour. So I drove around in circles (rectangles) until I found the entrance.

I have a symbiotic relationship with my GPS. Technically, symbiosis involves two living organisms. But I find the pleasant female voice of my GPS to be real enough. Her presence is comforting and reassuring all along the way.  Part of the symbiosis is that as much as she helps me, there are times when I have to help her help me. Although she is usually incredibly accurate, there are times she completely fails me.  Once when she said "you have arrived at your destination" I was beside a large cemetery.  GPS humor I guess. Sometimes too I know better than she which way I'm going.  She will protest for a mile or so telling me to make a u-turn. Then once she realizes I'm serious about my direction, she will recalculate the route.

My father, too, was one of those people who if he had been there once, he always knew how to find the place again. He may have used a map the first trip, but he never had to use it again. I wish I had inherited that ability from him, but that's one ability of many that he took with him when he died.

I would like to think that if my life depended on it, such as was the case with Daniel Boone and early pioneers, that I would have developed a better sense of direction.  As it is I'm very thankful that my directions are seldom a matter of life and death, and that my GPS provides me with constant help. I remember how excited I was when Telstar was launched into space on July 10, 1962.  But could that nine year old boy have had an inkling of why he was so excited? Back then I only had to find my way back and forth from Elmore's Dime Store. As a kid,  I also enjoyed Lost in Space, But God forbid I try to find my way home from there.