Sign spotted: We fold maps

To get from the big city of Atlanta back to Athens, you had to take Highway 78–aka Atlanta Highway and, yes, the very one mentioned by The B-52’s in Love Shack. 

Musical interlude:

Anyway, this is before you had a Wawa every 10 feet. It was the rural South circa 1990. You had the occasional locally owned gas station. 

I swear there was a little C-store along 78 with a sign out front: We fold maps.

Was that code for something? Did that many customers stop for map-folding assistance? 

That little nugget’s been rolling around in my head. Figured I’d share. 

Our brains work alike. I often compare mine to a dusty attic, full of random stuff. 

"Heading out to the country to get my map folded"

For some reason this made me think of my first roadtrip without my parents. My now best friend of 25+ years, at the time, had never hung out outside of school. We decided we wanted to go to the import drag race at a strip in north Texas (we lived just outside of Tulsa). 

This would have been 1999/2000 so we were 17/18 years old? All we did was look at the internet OK.........we take 75 to here, then this highway, then it will be on the right side of the highway. We stopped at a little gas station diner at like 4-5 am and I remember the waitress telling us that her parents would have never been OK with her leaving the state at high school age. 

No map, no cell phones, just a big black CD binder and my '88 300ZX. It was an absolute blast. On the way back after the race, we got caught up in a train of cars (also coming back) all doing about 120 for about an hour. My little 300ZX didn't miss a beat. We made it from north of DFW to Tulsa in like 2.5 hours. 

For those not from the area, it should have been closer to a 4 hour drive. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Getting far off-topic, your story reminds me of my first weekend owning a car. Picked it up in Bridgewater NJ, drove back to Pittsburgh. Grabbed 2 buddies and tossed in some random "camping gear" (tarps, blankets, an enamel pot, water jug, beef jerky and ramen), and headed north for fall break camping in Canada. Literally looked at my big USA Atlas and picked a large green spot north of most people in Ontario, then drove following that map. Discovered at the Niagara Falls border crossing we were headed to something called Algonquin Provincial Park. Would love to go back again now that I kind of know how to camp and would be able to plan a bit more. The image below is from google maps, which we didn't use. The atlas had the surrounding area much lighter colored so the park stood out much more. So many great stories from that trip.

David S. Wallens said:

I swear there was a little C-store along 78 with a sign out front: We fold maps.

Was that code for something? Did that many customers stop for map-folding  ? 

That little nugget’s been rolling around in my head. Figured I’d share. 

I beat any small store would love to think of a "Hook" so you remember their store and maybe stop and buy something :)

And there are some maps that you really do need help with  ,  European maps  are "interesting"

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Been working since 1931.

californiamilleghia said:

David S. Wallens said:

I swear there was a little C-store along 78 with a sign out front: We fold maps.

Was that code for something? Did that many customers stop for map-folding  ? 

That little nugget’s been rolling around in my head. Figured I’d share. 

I beat any small store would love to think of a "Hook" so you remember their store and maybe stop and buy something :)

And there are some maps that you really do need help with  ,  European maps  are "interesting"

I really shoulda stopped by. 

"Don't fold the maps!"

"I didn't fold the maps."

"Yeah, well, Kansas is a mess: there's a big crease right through Wichita. Roll the maps."

In reply to Stealthtercel :

Train don't run out of Wichita... unlessin' you're a hog or a cattle.

Wait, wrong movie. 

My previous job was (in part) supporting map folding machines. Pretty much the Love Shack video every service trip.

In reply to Crxpilot :

And here I’ve been folding my mini zines by hand.