Quarters only
The last few years of my grandfather’s life, he went on vacation with us. He had an intense curiosity and keen interest in everything he saw from his spot in the front seat; nothing escaped his attention.
I want to think I inherited a bit of those fine qualities.
He was a map reader. Every time we’d stop for gas, he’d return to the car with a new map from the rack inside the station.
I know I inherited his love of maps.
Our route from Texas to our most-frequent vacation destination would have taken us through Santa Rosa, and maybe to this very station. It’s funny that I hadn’t thought about him, or the trips, or the maps for years, but the very instant I saw this old map display, all those memories returned as if the trips were just a couple of years ago.
Although, in my grandpa’s time, the maps would have been free.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
Posted on May 21, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, melinda green harvey, new mexico, one day one image, photo a day, photography, road maps, santa rosa, santa rosa new mexico. Bookmark the permalink. 18 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
Your grandfather reminds me of mine – the curiosity, the enthusiasm. Thanks for the post – it’s delightful.
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Thanks, Donna – I am glad you liked the post.
Thanks, too, for following my blog. I’ve just spent a little bit of time (but not enough!) looking at your blog, and like it very much!
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I understand your grandfather’s love of maps because I love to look at them. Even though we have a gps in the car, I like to look at the maps I download or get from AAA. I don’t know of any service stations around here that have them but that may be because I don’t usually go inside anymore. The photo is a nice reminder of a great time in my life.
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Yes, I have GPS in my car, too, and only use it to find specific addresses in places I am not familiar with. Otherwise, I use old-time paper maps.
I have a book of large-scale maps called The Roads of Texas that I’ve used so much it is falling apart (even the repairs are falling apart). But I don’t want to replace it, because it’s got a lot of notes in it about places I found in my wanderings.
I am glad you found the photo to be a nice reminder!
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I love maps as well. What you have not told us is whether you bought a map or two for the car.
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I did not buy a map or two: the station was out of business. The map rack was just detritus; I took the picture through the window.
And, anyway, I can’t figure out from the sign how much the maps cost…
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Oh, I see. Vintage out of date maps. Fun, but probably still more useful that some of the GPS directions outside of urban areas.
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Irony: With all my talk about how much I prefer paper maps and rarely use the GPS in my car, that VERY SAME CAR spent today at the dealership. Getting the GPS undated.
Wait. Maybe that’s not irony. Maybe that’s stupidity.
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No comment 🙂
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That “no comment” sort of says a lot, no?
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“No?”
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We’re lost in silliness. Need GPS to route us back to normalcy. Or what passes for it, anyway.
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I think there is some truth in what you say about inheritance. My father was a keen amateur botanist and wherever we went for a walk he would soon be down at ground level either photographing a new plant or looking it up in his botanical book. He was acutely aware of his surroundings. I’m not a botanist and have long since forgotten most of the names I could have recalled 40 years ago but I like to think I inherited his curiosity aka ‘an Eye’ for seeing something worthwhile on my travels.
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But even if you’ve forgotten the plants’ names, you still remember that looking (and seeing) is what matters, and that shows up in your photography. (And, I like it a lot that just one post back on your blog is this:
http://lensscaper.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/the-unfurling-of-leaves/!)
I don’t know if “inheriting” or “learning” is the more correct term, but I like to think of it as an inheritance, as something of value that’s passed along from one generation to the next. It made me proud last winter, when my granddaughter, who is 5, navigated us through a zoo by reading a map. (She’s quite adept with an iPad, so maybe I was even surprised that she knew what an actual MAP was…)
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As a fellow map lover, I salute you and your grandpa. A treasured childhood moment for me was when, in the car, on the way home from a long vacation….my grandpa gave me the road atlas I had been fascinated with during the trip. Maps rule! I still remember where it happened….right near the tiny town of St. Francis in the extreme northeast corner of Kansas.
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Thanks for sharing that story – I am sure you treasured that atlas.
Also, it probably won’t surprise you to know that I just located St. Francis on a map. I don’t think I have ever been there, but I’ve been close, having traveled from Texas to South Dakota on US 385 a few times; that route is just on the eastern side of Colorado (which looks a lot like Kansas!). If I ever go back up that way, maybe I’ll take a little detour to see St. Francis!
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