2000-04-27 - 20:54:24

April 27, 2000

Lodestone

Boys, as they grow orient themselves in many ways. The ways become more complex and increase in numbers.

Landmarks are visual clues. Down the block past the yard having the constantly barking dog, toward my cousin's house, the street car tracks leading to town and the return tracks headed toward Denver University Stadium and the observatory, the way to my schoolhouse, the direction to turn to go to the novelty shop which had the greatest selection of penny candy in the world, tops, kites Tootsie cars and things fascinating to children.

Oh, they did have groceries and dairy products. None of us kids knew about that, the other merchandise had us in a trance the way to and from the library was soon mastered.

As I tried to construct a mental map of my world I soon knew that I had to widen my scope. Dad introduced me to the compass, that funny little round box with the seemingly floating needle quivering and turning. Dad told me that the point of the arrow on the needle of the compass always would end up pointing north. North ? What the heck was that ? Dad told me that the world had directions and showed me on a small globe and maps in his Atlas how the longitude lines met at each pole, North and South. Latitudinal lines were paralell and grew shorter as they moved out from the equator. He demonstrated to me how people found their way by using maps and compasses.

The "Acid Test" was run by myself, I found a place where I could see the mountains and had been told that the mountains were West of Denver. So, holding the compass with the W on the case toward the West, then I could see on the case that North was to the right and that's where the needle was also pointing. South showed up in a directly opposite direction. One compass point to figure out, East was at my back and after a few excursions with my folks I managed to keep East always at my back, nothing out there but flat, dry land and jackrabbits

So, now I had a frame to enclose my world and I began to mentally fill in the blank areas that I did not know yet. Land marks, buildings, hills and as I began to read a bit came the street signs all arranged my area into a coherent mental map. Daniel's and Fisher's tower was a guide post from most parts of town, the Platte River flowed south to north through town and Cherry Creek flowed through town from the Southeast the the two water courses met and joined near downtown Denver at the rail yards. The Platte River, sometimes creek narrow and sometimes river wide depending on the season, along with the Depot and rail yards was more or less a boundary between the east and west side of town.

The localisms of North Denver, South Denver, East Denver and West Denver were not the most sensible call out for actual locations. Much better terminology woupld have been Northwest Denver, Southwest Denver and so on.

However directions and ethnic settlement had a lot to do with the callout. These directions seemed to be used by various political groups to slant the facts to their advantage.

Guideposts accumulated in my brain bit by bit. I set myself the task of memorizing the north - south avenue names. To the north were the numbered avenues and to the south were named avenues many of them named after colleges. The East - West progression were all named. The little quirks of knowing where the addresses became South "X" Streets and where the change over to West "X" avenues came. There came a time that I could be dropped anywhere in town and pinpoint my location by looking at one house address and the street sign on the corner. Most of what I memorized as a boy became invaluable to me as I did the kid messenger bit and as I became older the routing of things was one of my jobs which was a piece of cake.

Years passed, my kids grew up, married, moved away. Town had grown and much of the growth contained twisty streets, cul de sacs and developments with only one entrance / exit. We set up a flower shop in an area that was just stakes and strings, construction equipment and wall to wall vertical real estate. It grew at a rate beyond belief, but my retained knowledge enabled me to find anything out there as the numbers and names were mostly retained.

Most of the progeny really didn't get into that at all. They could hop in a car and go right to the place they wanted to be, but could not, absolutely could not give anyone directions to any locations nor could they give the hundred block North or South - - East or West.

The world they are in now is the territory that is foreign country to me. As I learn a little about computers they are galloping far ahead of me while I try to stay close enough that I can understand what they are trying to tell me. Some of us old geezers gave up a long time ago - - and just started coasting.

Conclusion ? Maybe different strokes for different folks ? The need to know where I am and how to get where I want to go is prime with me instead of relying on someone else to be the driver / navigator ? I think many folk are ignorant of things in their own town. They get to work and back, the liquor store, the video shop, the favorite restaurant and the big department store they favor, their clinic - - it seems as if they feel they do not need to know more than that. Maybe they don't, maybe I am the picky, picky - - persnickety one. But I like where I am as well as they like where they are. Just a matter or definition and degree.

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