Do I Have Dyslexia?

Quote: Wizard

I remember once on the Newlywed Game they first asked the four women, "In which direction does the sun set in your neighborhood?" All of them had to work it out in their heads, saying things like, "It sets over the Smith house and if I turn left from there on Cherry, and right on Pine, and ... I think I would be facing north, so it sets south." None of them got it right.

When it came to the men all four of them immediately said, "It sets in the west, of course, as it does everywhere."

60s/70s version?

Quote: odiousgambit

never had a bit of trouble with L/R , but I have an odd problem with east/west and to a lessor degree north/south. I will know what is correct and what I want to say, but what comes out will be reversed.

I've had east/west trouble for
years. Right now I'm facing
east and I would tell you I'm
facing west if you asked me
unexpectedly. N/S are fine.
Do not ask me for directions.

I can't solve a Rubik's cube. I don't remember anything about differential equations. I can't run a marathon. But I'm rock solid on left and right.

I remember as a child sometimes freezing on left/right. Then when I was 7 or 8 I had an emergency appendectomy. After that the memory of the pain in my right side was seared into my brain. I never tripping on left / right again. I think I no longer viewed my body as symmetric.

Quote: JimRockford

But I'm rock solid on left and right.
.

As the article I posted said, many many
people think that until they're tested.

My most embarrassing experience with getting a direction wrong was when I was going to lead the way to Disney World from Texas with my then girlfriend and her mother in her car behind me. Drove a couple miles before I realize, crap, we're headed to California. I should've been cool and pretended the U turn was part of the road trip, but I gave my mistake away.

Quote: rxwine

Drove a couple miles before I realize, crap, we're headed to California.

Should have kept going to Disneyland,
how would they know.

the east-west thing with me will sometimes kick in when driving. I'll be somewhere new and needing to read the signs ... i'll know I want to go west, say, then I reach the intersection and the sign says , say, Rt. 66 East. If I have to make a snap decision I might just say to myself, "sounds right" , and go that way. When it is too late I'm slapping my forehead and wondering "how does that happen?"

I still remember as a kid, summer between 7th and 8th grade. Family trip to FL, a very big thing in those days. We had a free place to stay. Somewhere in SC IIRC there was this "dog leg" in the highway where a N/S route shares roadway with an E/W route for 15 miles or so. I was a good map reader as a kid, my dad was about the most awful person with directions you could ever meet. Stage set.

We get to the turn and he says we need to "take west." I said it was east. He said west. It got to screaming, I was in near tears at that age. (Us doing anything together was the secret model for "American Chopper.") My mother was taking the turn driving. Obviously he won out and I am still in near tears, sulking.

The exit does not show up, after near an hour my mother decides something is wrong. Tells me to look at the map. I still remember the town, "Newburry." Says to look for it on the map and figure out where the exit is. I look, took a few seconds, I say, "Here it is, we are 50 miles in the wrong direction!"

Would have made GA in the first day, a big thing back then. Stayed in SC that night. At least there was a fireworks store by the hotel, another big thing back in dem days.

Quote: AZDuffman

I said it was east. He said west. It got to screaming,

OMG, never would have happened
in my car. My dad made the rules
and there was no argument. None.
But I wouldn't have known we
were lost anyway. I never questioned
my dad's decisions because it was
pointless. So I paid no attention at
all and just read my books.

Quote: Evenbob

OMG, never would have happened
in my car. My dad made the rules
and there was no argument. None.
But I wouldn't have known we
were lost anyway. I never questioned
my dad's decisions because it was
pointless. So I paid no attention at
all and just read my books.

His sense of direction was horrible. I do not remember, but at 4-5 years old we were on a vacation in some shore town, Ocean City, MD, maybe. Way my mother tells the story he was going around and around the block, looking for the hotel. At age 4 I must have had enough because she says I screamed, "IT'S OVER THERE!" And it was.

As an adult I was in a car when he was following the GPS, almost went the wrong way on a ramp. I yelled at him, he yelled at me for yelling at him, I yelled back that I will damn well yell at anyone about to get me killed. Told him if he was not more careful I would throw the GPS unit out the damn window, quote unquote. Shortly later my mother was almost always doing the driving.