REMEMBERING WHEN: We just go there

By Keith Schell

One day, when I was quite young, my father and I went into town to the ballpark in the early evening to watch a big fastball game between our local men’s team and a team from the neighbouring town.

The crowd for the game was so large that the parking lot was full, so we had to park on the shoulder of the road across from the ballpark and walk a short distance to the diamond.

Just before the game started, Dad sent me back to our car to get something. I didn’t even need the keys—nobody locked their cars back then because everyone knew and trusted each other. I crossed the road to the car and got what Dad had asked for.

But before I could cross back to return to the game, an older couple pulled up to me in a big car. The gentleman rolled down his window and asked, “Son, can you tell me how to get to the liquor store?”

And I couldn’t. I honestly couldn’t!

I knew perfectly well where the liquor store was—I’d ridden past it in the back of our car hundreds of times. It was right beside the grocery store, in the same building where we did all our weekly shopping.

The problem was, I didn’t know any of the street names in our little town back then. As a kid, I didn’t need to know them. I always knew where I was going... and I just went there!

I tried to give him directions, but they weren’t very good. I couldn’t very well just say, “Go down to Uncle Ray’s house and turn right. Go past the big tree and straight down the street to the green house with the big yappy dog, then turn left there. When you see the laundromat across from the grocery store, look around and you’ll see it.”

When I finished my less-than-precise directions, he rolled up his window and drove away. But the look he shot me as he left made me feel like he thought he was talking to the village idiot!

As small-town kids, using street signs never really occurred to us growing up. We usually navigated by landmarks and familiar places. That was the only way I knew how to get anywhere in my little town.

And my parents, for the most part, were the same way. Because we spent most of our time just going back and forth to town, our little town and the surrounding area were essentially the entire universe to our family. And because of that, our parents usually knew where they were going and just went there as well. Street signs only came into play when it was absolutely necessary—typically when we were trying to find someplace new and unfamiliar.

How many times did your family slowly drive down a street, uncomfortably scanning for unfamiliar street signs or house numbers, trying to match what they saw with the handwritten directions from a phone call? And how palpable was the relief in the car when you finally found your destination and everybody all pointed to it at the same time and said, “There it is!”?

Nowadays, with electronic Global Positioning Systems in our cars, it’s tough to get lost—though not impossible. People still take wrong turns, miss exits, or end up where they hadn’t planned. And when they lose all faith in their GPS, they might have to ask someone nearby for directions. And that someone might just be a kid.

So, if you ask a small-town kid for directions, don’t be too upset if their instructions don’t make any sense to you. Just remember—they make perfect sense to the kid! After all, they’re not the ones who are lost.

When they go someplace in their little town, they probably don’t know any of the street names.

They just go there!