By Neena Strichart
I believe that the two most important skills to possess are typing and map reading.
Thankfully, I learned to type at Jefferson Junior High School in the 7th or 8th grade. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Opdahl. What a great educator. She was very patient with us teenagers and had a special knack for teaching us to strive for accuracy rather than speed. At our ages, we were very competitive and tried to race through our assignments. I hope she knows how much we appreciated her. Without typing I would have never been able to use a computer— and where the heck would I be now?
In my high school and younger college years, I didn’t have a computer. No one did. All our papers were composed on typewriters— what a hassle and a mess with all that carbon paper and typewriter ribbon. Nevertheless, we plugged away without spell check, grammar check or a built-in thesaurus. We actually used dictionaries and a book called a thesaurus. I wonder if anyone even uses them now.
The importance of being able to read a map was impressed upon me by my father, Alfred Posner. Daddy was a Los Angeles County tax collector. His job was to visit businesses that were delinquent on their county taxes. During his visits with the merchants, he would try to help them devise payment plans to catch up on their taxes. Every night he would sit at the kitchen table and “map out” his route for the next day. He knew that his morning would begin at his office in downtown Los Angeles and his day would end at our home in Signal Hill. With the help of his trusty Thomas Guide map he would plan the most efficient way to make each stop (sometimes up to ten in one day) without backtracking. I was in awe of his artful way of utilizing the map— almost in the way a musician uses his or her instrument.
Through the years, I have been grateful for my ability to read a map. During the time I worked as a designer for California Closet Company, I too had to plan my route the night before. Sometimes I would have a morning appointment in Manhattan Beach and an afternoon appointment in Yorba Linda. I would have never made it without my Thomas Guide map. Nowadays, we rely on our portable or built-in car GPS gadgets. Mom bought us one for Christmas two years ago, and I just love it.
I still use www.mapquest.com once in a while, although it has its flaws. The other day I discovered www.googlemaps.com and found it very helpful. Not only will it give you directions but a map as well. It will also show you what the current traffic conditions are and give you alternate routes. Pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of the old Auto Club TripTik books. Boy, did I use those a lot for cross-county or out-of-state trips.
Even with the fancy gadgets available, I still prefer my Thomas Guide, and Steve mentioned the other day that he needed to find our old typewriter to complete a project. I guess the old standbys are still the best— anybody have an 8-track player I can borrow?
