We don't have GPS in our car - my husband says I'm the GPS. Could stand for 'Girl Points Somewhere' - actually when I point I invariably point to the some 'where' where we are supposed to be going - I am quite good at directions. Could call it 'VPS' - 'Virginia Plots a Sightsee' - I enjoy planning a day out and getting my Ordnance Survey maps out. I rather love maps so imagine my excitement when I came across the Auto-mapic in a charity shop last year, the GPS of fifties Europe.
It's a GB road map in a plastic casing with tabs on the side. You adjust the tabs and a new section of road map appears before your eyes. As the blurb on the casing says "Safer and quicker to use than a folding map, the Auto-mapic is a permanent solution to the road map problem."
I think it dates from the 1950s and 1960s - quite early on as mine doesn't have the M1 marked on it. In fact a previous owner has felt-tipped the M1 and M6 in. It is very very splendid with lovely detailed maps with all the little towns included. There's even a rather wonderful London map showing clearly all the arterial roads and places I've heard about but never visited like Greenwich and Chiswick and Chelsea. At a flick of the tabs you are in another part of country. GPS - pah - we now live by the Auto-mapic at 88.
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