Straight from The Horse’s Mouth

...So a Local, a Move-in and a Drive-by walk into a coffee bar. The Drive-by asks "Can you tell me how to get to Mex-ee-uh?" The Move-In says "No, I go to the Walmart in Palestine". The Local says "Well you can just go straight (pointing) to 45 and go up to Dew, then over until you come to a turn. Then you can either go straight thru town and go right just after you pass the shops. Or you could turn right before you get downtown and go past the fence with all the fishheads hanging on it" -- yada yada yada. Now isn't that more charming than "go west on hwy 79 for 1.4 miles, then north on I-45, etc..."?

In most older Locals' direction giving you will often find "a big oak tree" in their descriptions, also possibly a "where Mr. So-n-So's house was struck by lightning and burned down in '46 and they built that red brick with white trim, oh no - they painted their trim brown last year", etc. What good could come of living a small town if it was not for local charm?? I know people in Buffalo today who give directions stating "passed that place with the zebra". How cute is that?

Last week we had a Local and a couple of Move-ins sitting on the couches having an interesting chat. They taught me why they gave directions in that manner. 'Back in the day' there simply were no street signs. They had no choice but to describe landmarks. Certainly the post office had names and numbers for their routes, but it didn't matter. Mail could be received if the post master knew you, and post masters knew everyone. One exceptional example: 'Susie, in Buffalo Texas' was all it took on an envelope for Mrs. Teddlie to get her mail.

Hard to imagine these days, it was a very laid back way of life. Things moved slower. Without your nose in a map, or a GPS app on your iPhone you noticed the big oak tree, you see so-and-so's house. You might ponder the health of the tree, the season, if it had enough rain. You may think of the person who lives/ lived in that house. It was a simpler, meaningful way to be in the world back then. I'm not saying that progress or technology is bad by any means, just noticing the difference.

Speaking of Susie, a beloved Buffalo School Teacher, up until a few months ago it was easy to give directions to her house from The Horse's Mouth. We could point and say "only a little bit straight down that-a-way". Sadly, yet simpler, it's even easier now. When we need to show where she, and also fellow teacher, Coach Oliver live we can just point straight up from wherever we happen to be.

Directions are, after all, a matter of perspective. Sometimes we might think "we can't get there from where we are...but we can".