h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Monday, 28th February, 2000

Not too long ago I was in a country town, in an area where I was rather unsure of myself, geographically speaking. I was driving around sort of aimlessly, although I did have with me a map of the area, and was focused enough to have my next stop in mind each time I started up the car.

In this case, the route to my immediate destination, as revealed to me by my map, seemed awfully out-of-the-way, and after filling up with petrol, I politely enquired of the attendant whether he could show me on my map the best way to get to where I was going.

Maybe he could tell that I was a child of the city, and way out of my depth. Or maybe he just didn't realise how unhelpful he was about to be. In any case, he merely smiled a condescending, almost pitying smile, and advised me to dispense with the map, and simply follow his straight-forward directions, which he then proceeded to give me.

At that point I began to tune out, and the following thoughts wafted through my mind: why couldn't he just do as I asked? You see, if I did as he said and took the obscure country lane which would halve my traveling time, I would inevitably take an incorrect turn somewhere, and then, lost, have no way of finding my bearings at all. I'd be done for. My reasons for using only mapped roads were clear - in the event that I did get lost, it would be simpler to figure out where I had messed up.

I left the town with bad feelings. It seems like only a small deal, but I just can't understand why he wouldn't show me on the map. I actually proferred it a second time, while he was pontificating, and a second time he brushed it aside. It was as if it was beneath him to even *consider* using it.

What kind of customer service is that? If I want to abide by my 'archaic' methods, I should be allowed to. He could at least given me options, instead of insisting on the one course of action.

It really doesn't seem like so much of a big deal now that I've typed it out, but it's been rolling around in my mind for a couple of months now, so hopefully this therepeutically clears the matter out for now.

Actually, I can tell you why he did not use the map. If you showed me a map of my hometown, which is very small, I probably couldn't recognize any of the roads. Maps of small towns are usually labeled with numbers e.g. route 40, while the streets signs say "maple ave" or the like. Map companies usually do not care if maps of small towns and surrounding areas are correct, therefore they are usually outdated. So no one in small areas, where everyone has lived there for generations, really needs a map for anything. For example, the directions to my mom's house go like this: go out of town for 5 miles, turn left a the stained glass sign, at the first (only) stop sign go up the hill toward the barn (not right toward the orchard) it is the driveway on the right. Listen for the dog. So I hope that helped. The dude probably couldn't read the map anyway.