Street Cars

Just to show you how different things are today, than they were in the 1930’s and 40’s. When I was about 5 my mother would get me all dressed up and we would walk the few blocks to Grand Avenue in Des Moines and wait for the street car to come along.

When it arrived, my Mom would put me on board, pay the motorman the 10 cents and she would send me off on my own for an afternoon ride to the end of the line and back. I would sit behind the street car driver all dressed up riding the street car without the fear of anything. I remember it as nothing short of exciting and wonderful. The roar of the electric motors, the clack of the wheels on the steel rails and the clang of the warning bell as we came to each stop or crossed an intersection or warning pedestrians, is still vivid in my memory.

When we reached the end of the line, he would take me by the hand to the rear of the street car which was shortly to become the front. Then he would climb out and reverse the trolleys, climb back aboard and off we would go. Soon ‘our’ stop would come into sight and there would be my Mom waiting for my arrival. Today she would have been arrested for such behavior. Life was so much simpler in 1935.