<<I did eventually learn that if north was up on a map, west and east spelled "WE" . . .>>
I learned that too, but I still have to stop and think about it. If I run
down to the Tube in a hurry, and am faced with a westbound and an eastbound
platform and a train on one of them, and have to make a quick decision about
which direction I'm going in, I always have to think - it's never
instinctive like north/south is. I mostly recognise that Hammersmith and
Heathrow on the list of destinations means west, and the places I've never
been to are east. But I don't have any problems with left and right.
Does anyone have problems with north/south?
I do. I have problems with *all* directions. Can't read a map, unless I orient it the same way that I'm moving, even if it means having south (or east or west) *up*; getting up to Pittsburgh and back (as part of the Ithaca trip) was a bit of "trick cycling" in *that* respect as well. *Especially* since some of the (single-page, detailed) maps I got were "upside down" (from my point of view)... So, going *to* Pbgh, I had to look at some of them as they were, and some of them upside down. Going back, it was t'other way 'round, but still not simple :)
But, like Annette, I respond well to *words*, so I'd look at a map during a stop, and "fix" on the name of the next town, or towns (if I felt ambitious enough; usually, remembering more than one for more than an hour is pretty much impossible <g>) I was headed for -- that's what I'd look for on signs. If that was not possible (a town too small to appear on a sign more than just the once -- at the exit for it), I'd memorise the *words*: "seventy west" (for example). *Words*, I can hold onto (at least for a bit); to me, they have a personality. Directions (east, west, north, south, left, right), OTOH, are totally meaningless... :)
I do still have a pretty decent *visual* memory (used to be almost photographic, the first 30 or so yrs of my life... gone; like everything else <g>), which helped. I checked my proposed route on an overall map, and had a pretty good picture of where I was headed. Given enough time on the same road, I was able to figure out (mentally) in which *direction* it was going, and in which direction I'd be moving after I changed the road -- so I could reassure myself that I was still on the right one and know/guess what I should look for on the signs at the switching point...
Lefties aren't the only ones with a burden... :)
And, can anyone tell me why they're called "*south*paws"? Isn't south *down*, rather than *left*?
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Tamara P Duvall
Lexington, Virginia, USA
Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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