William Nelson
I just wrote a response about the streetcars, but it disappeared before I completed it. Starting over!
We moved to my grandma's house on S 23rd Street, just south of Greenfield Ave. when I was about three. We moved to 36th and Rohr in 1953. I remember the street cars plying Greenfield when I was a kid, but I also remember when they were replaced by trolley buses. A good friend of ours was interviewed on TV as she rode the last street car back to West Allis. The trolley buses were already running on 35th Street when we moved to the North side. I remember they turned around on Silver Spring in the area y'all were discussing.
I worked for the Milwaukee Players stage crew while attending Custer. Many of the shows were staged at West Division HS, so I used to ride the bus to and from quite often. One night, I was the only passenger on the bus and struck up a conversation with the driver. He told me how quick off the line those buses were. I had my doubts, so he proved it at the next stop. He stomped on the go pedal and did it ever! At that time, I'd never been in a vehicle that could accelerate that quickly up to about 30 MPH. If you remember the Bob Newhart routine about the "Chicago Bus Drivers' School," he had a student driver alternate starting and stopping quickly as an elderly lady tried to find her seat. He kept her airborne for four cycles. After my experience, I believe that might be possible.
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. If you've been traveling, travel safely. The two of us dined alone yesterday, but our middle son's family will arrive this evening and we'll have more goodies tomorrow. They'll head back to Texas on Sunday.
To all our friends in California, our hearts go out to you. It seems like your area is stuck in a vicious cycle and it sounds like that might continue for a while. Hard to imagine such losses.
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