Most of the time street signs or familiar buildings provide all the orientation I need. If consulting the GPS, that comforting blue dot on the map says “You Are Here” and step by step instructions take me to specific places with an address. But what if you need to find a place without an address?
My directions include more details than a mapping app: “take a soft left at the big intersection by the new Whole Foods and look for the former movie palace with the ornate facade. If you get to the Walgreen’s you’ve gone too far.” The building has an address over the front door, but it’s not as prominent as that elaborate facade, or as noticeable as the Walgreen’s parking lot. I think of instructions like this as more helpful, foolproof and customized than the GPS, though they are rarely what the Lyft driver will use to find me (and why they often end up in the Walgreen’s parking lot).
I recently read The Address Book and learned there are many places in the rural U.S. without addresses. The author recounted her attempt to visit a man in West Virginia who lives in a house without a number on a street that never had a name. His mail goes to a post office box, but some things, like UPS delivery, an ambulance, or a friendly visitor, need to know how to actually find your house. The directions were to look for a trucking company, take the fork in the road by the large pine, pass the preacher’s house, and turn onto the gravel path. For folks familiar with the area, those landmarks would be meaningful; for others, not so much.
When I’m visiting Louisville, I usually have no trouble finding my way, but since new roads and stores have appeared, or other places have transformed, I may need directions. While the destination has a precise address, we have never known it, so the directions sound like this: drive past the former movie theatre, down to the light where that new bank replaced the White Castle, keep going till you get to the intersection past the old Bacon’s, take a left, then a sharp left then a right over the train tracks, turn right again and there you are! Some Louisvillian readers may be able to visualize exactly where they are.
That location is also known as wasps.barrage.good to the what3words app – an addressing tool that divides the world into three by three meter squares, assigning a unique set of three words to each square. With this app, you can pinpoint any location, whether it has a formal address or not. So, I could identify the specific park bench I want you to visit for that exchange of spy secrets, or which corner of the concert venue I’m standing in. Now, any place can be “found” though I’m not sure my online shopping order will know what to do with an address like error.dish.joke.
Where Do We Go From Here? 