A Relic From My Analog Beginnings

In 1994 we didn’t have GPS. We had to look numbers up in the Yellow Pages, call for hours, and rely on the nice lady on the phone for directions. We didn’t have email, and car phones were the size of a brick. Most people couldn’t afford them yet, including me!

I found this in my old Genealogy Notebook: directions to the Roswell, Georgia Family History Center.

• Phone number, 594-1706.

• Take GA 400 to Holcomb Bridge - exit 7b.

• Left on Grimes Bridge - 5th light.

• Right into the parking lot - several blocks.

At the FHC, the technology felt cutting-edge: It was FamilySearch on CD! From there, we could order microfilm and wait a few weeks for the nice lady to call and say it had arrived.

And I swear, every time, I would forget how to operate the microfilm reader. Every. Single. Time. So embarrassing!

We’ve gained a few tools since then, but perhaps, just maybe, we’ve also lost out on a few adventures?

When's the last time you found a place without using GPS? Or looked something up in the Yellow Pages? (Are they still even yellow?)