When we were kids, we had built-in Global Positioning Systems in our young, forming brains. Ofttimes on bicycles but mostly on foot, we instinctively knew how to get from Point A to Point B in the fastest way possible.
I grew up in a neighborhood that was basically at the foot of a mountain. To visit a friend that lived three-fourths up the mountain was a good quarter mile hike. We did not have cars to drive on the three parallel streets that switch-backed to the top. And riding a bicycle on those streets took too much time and effort. So to go to that house on that street, my friends and I would just walk straight up the hill, essentially bisecting the area leading up there. We would cut through people’s yards without a thought. I cannot remember any property owner ever saying anything. And it was the fastest way to get there.
You might remember as well the shortcuts you took in your childhood to get to where you wanted to go.
Neighborhood alleys, where they existed, were always a fast and convenient route to get to your destination.
No matter the obstacle, be it yard, fence, railroad track, school grounds, or corporate property, we just had this sense of basically how to bisect the area and get straight to the destination.
Had we a smartphone to show us the way, that would have taken the fun out of it, quite frankly.
Now that I am (presumably) an adult, I drive my car everywhere. Even without my car’s built-in GPS, I can figure out in my head a “shorter” way to get somewhere.
Of course, if you don’t have a sense of direction …. I’m not sure what to tell ya.
