sapphirepaw's Introduction to Pointers, version 2

I programmed in assembly for some time, using pointers without understanding what they were, or that they were called pointers.  When I finally got to learning C, the pointer syntax was downright inscrutable, but when I got it, suddenly all of C and all of assembler laid clear before me, all at once.  It was a beautiful thing.

I was reminded about this while reading this post from HN.  It inspired me to try explaining pointers from the opposite direction.  Instead of trying to teach pointers via C syntax, let me try to start with pointers outside of programming, then discuss them in relation to C and PHP.