I suppose it would be mostly practical skills, cooking, fixing things. Usually had to be done by people themselves.
Maybe also mental things like navigating (with or without paper map) and remembering their daily and weekly agendas.
What other things would be a big difference with the people today?
Navigating a paper map.
You want to drive to a suburb of a big city. You have an address. The internet doesn’t exist.
How do you get there? Well. You use a map. Almost every glove box would have a local and state map, if not a full map book like a Thomas brothers.
I wonder if it took quite a bit longer for people to reach their destination. Because not everyone would be as good at reading maps (compared to simply following gps instructions) Maybe that made it more common for people to arrive at different times. or plan longer trips because the driving would take up a bigger part of it.
Also, when driving alone, I can’t imagine holding your map. So you would still have to stop from time to time for long trips. And actually memorize the big lines of how to get to your destination.
Oh it absolutely did. You would regularly have to stop (often after a turn or if you felt like you missed one) and reconsult the map. You just accounted for that additional time. Longer trips are often less of an issue, because its usually, you get to a big main highway and its cruise most of the rest of the way.
And plenty of times, you might get lost/ not be able to find yourself on the map. You’d have to pull over and ask for help/ directions. You might write the directions down on a piece of paper, but that doesn’t do you much good if you missed a turn and didn’t know it.
Going along with reading a map most people don’t know how roads and exits are numbered. It’s not a random jumble. This makes reading a map and just knowing what direction you’re traveling in general much easier. This is for the US.
Interstates
1 or 2 Digits: Main routes. North-South routes have odd numbers, increasing from west to east (e.g., I-5 to I-95). East-West routes have even numbers, increasing from south to north (e.g., I-10 to I-90).
3 Digits (Even First Number): A loop or beltway that connects to the main interstate at both ends.
3 Digits (Odd First Number): A spur route that connects to the main interstate at only one end.
Exit numbers
They mirror the mile markers which show up on maps. Numbers increase from south to north or west to east. So you could basically make a ‘cheat sheet’ of your exit numbers. Then while driving you know how far till your next exit.
I’ve seen this not be true on occasion but it should be mostly true. If the exit sign is on the right of the road sign then the exit is to the right. If it’s on the left then it exits to the left.
All knowledge that I feel got lost to time for the most part. They should teach it in drivers ed but I don’t think they do.
As someone who travelled for work before and after smartphones, absolutely. You couldn’t just open Google Maps, search a business and go there, the problem wasn’t going city to city, but finding a specific place in or outside a city. If you got a request to go to X business either you already knew how to get there, or it would take some planning.
Nowadays my company can receive a request from a customer in another country, and in 1 hour they can plan the trip, reserve the rental car, book a plane, book an hotel for the night. That just wasn’t possible in the past.
The main maps I used for driving (back in the day, UK, 1986) were ‘books’ rather than large fold out maps. At local level, an A to Z. At national level, an AA road map, this has the format of a small newspaper, however in thicker paper.
Actually a much better way was to use a street directory if you know your way around the town even a bit.
Better even, and how we actually did it was giving instructions. “200m after the large tree by the field, drive on for about 400m, there’s 2 junctions before and mines the third one.”
But I also know orienteering ofc as a Finn
You generally only had a street directory of your OWN town, outside of specific professional settings.
I still carry a state map in my truck
That reminds me that I never moved the map from old car to the
newcurrent one.I was so obsessed with NYC subway maps lol (circa 2010)
When I was a kid, I used to just draw my interpretation of the subway routes + streets and like make my own “map”
I still have a London A to Z!