Short Takes

Streetcars:

While my family had a car, our trusty navy blue 1935 Plymouth, we either walked or rode the streetcar to get around.  Streetcars ran on tracks like a train, but were powered by electricity from overhead power lines.  A long rod attached to the top of the streetcar connected to the lines.  The streetcar lines ran a block from our house.  One line went from downtown to 45th and Bedford.  It went right past Clifton Hill elementary where I went to school, but I always walked to school.  The other line went to Benson and we often rode there.  Our most frequent streetcar rides were to downtown Omaha.  Both lines went downtown so we usually did not have to wait long.  The lines went down Dodge Street, but I don't remember where else.  I do remember riding the streetcar so Mom could pay the bills by going from place to place so she did not need to buy stamps to mail in her payments.  I don't remember for sure what it cost to ride, but it must have been less for four of us to ride than the three cent stamps required to mail a letter.  Sometimes on our way home, if we had been good, we would stop at the ice cream store at 40th and Hamilton for ice cream cones.

The streetcar had a coin machine at the top of the steps of entry to the car.  You had to have exact change to drop in the machine.  Another machine dispensed transfer tickets.  A transfer ticket allowed you to go from one line to another without paying a second fare.  There were three-seater benches on either side of the car at the front and the back, but the rest of the the seats faced the front.  Each seat on either side of a center aisle seated two.  There was a cord strung at the top of the windows which connected to a bell or buzzer near the driver.  When you tugged on the cord, thus ringing the bell, the driver knew to stop at the next stop.  He would open the door of the car so you could exit.  Often the driver advised you to "watch your step."   When I was seven years-old I rode the streetcar alone to take art lessons at the Joslyn Art Museum.  Another memorable ride when I was five was after I had had the abcess on my back lanced by a doctor in Benson.  My back was still numb so I could ride the rough-riding streetcar without excruciating pain.  Another memory when I was three was of admiring a black man who was sitting near us.  I embarrassed Mom by telling the man I wish I was black so I wouldn't have to take a bath.  Thankfully the man laughed and said his mom made him take baths too.

Today, many cities have streetcars for mostly tourist traffic.  Some modern day streetcars use gasoline.  Some cities have vehicles called "light rails."  They are trains of cars run by electricity like the streetcars.  I sometimes wonder if air pollution, costly consumption of gas, could be less of a problem if we had more mass transit that ran by the cleaner electricity.