[PRCo] Geography

[Fred Schneider]

American Automobile Association (AAA Lancaster County) has become
geographically challenged.  Went in today and asked for a group of
tourguide books ... "everything from Alabama across the south to
California, up the west coast, and every book along the northern states
back to Minneapolis, then down to Chicago.  After staring blankly at me
for a half minute, the girl then said, "I'm new here.  What does that
mean?"

Damn glad I didn't ask for a list of B&Bs between Berwick-upon-Tweed and
Dundee!

For those in the dark, and JCS and EHL won't be, this all relates to a
National Geographic test (the second one back) in which people in the U.
S. scored second worst in the world ... ten questions about the
absolutely most simple geography in the world, such as the 'Persian Gulf
lies between Saudi Arabia and ___________' or 'In which continent does
the United States lie?'   After that test I decided to see if it was
true.  Ed, John and I were eating dinner in a restaurant in Hampton
Township, fewer than 10 miles west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Just
for the hell of it I played with the waitress ... told her we were
traveling from Ohio to a meeting in Philadelphia and were unfamiliar
with this area ... and then asked her "Isn't the capital of Pennsylvania
somewhere in this area?"  The girl responded, "I'm not in school any
more.  I don't have to know."
I later found out that my niece, who was 17 at the time, was unable to
tell me which country borders the U. S. to the south.

Sad, no?