That's fascinating how you learned all the letters but never put them into an ordinal system. Definitely presents an alternate thinking mechanism than I think most people use. Must have been very tough on you in school as most schools don't handle people who think differently very well.

The left/right thing is probably much more common. I think it's interesting how you use the political compass as your visual reference. I for a long time couldn't remember which political party was left or right, but found I was very good at just 'knowing' left and right, as well as the cardinal directions n/s/e/w. My friend who was horrible at telling left from right would hold up both hands and extend his index and thumb. Whichever hand formed an "L" was his left hand and he used that all the time.