My daughter Rachel is running cross-country regionals today at Campbell University. We'll be driving over in the light rain in an hour or so. The university's maybe 80 miles away, so my wife sent me to the computer to get directions from Google. Which made me think of Triptiks.
Anyone else remember those? Triptiks were the high tech means of planning a drive. Pre-internet, that is. Actually, even when the net was in its infancy, we still used them. They were available for members from AAA. You called their 800 number, and gave them the start address, and the ending address. They in turn mailed (yes) a packet of material. It was a turn-by-turn set of driving directions, complete with maps and everything. It worked. Only your trip had to be planned out long enough for them to mail the packet from Charlotte to us here in Burlington. And of course, it was only used for longish trips. But it did the job. It's just now that the very thought sounds cumbersome and duddy. But the reality is, it is duddy. And for those internet-averse, there's someone out there still using them.
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