[PRCo] Re: Linden Grove Dance Hall

[Fred Schneider]

Terry Cassidy owned a great flash night picture (from back in the days when
one Press 40 flashbulb would light up a building) that looked down on Kansas
City Public Service Company's Scout.  For those who don't know, the Scout was
a tiered, open top observation car like Montreal's 1, 2, 3, and 4, or
Cincinnati's Hiawatha or the equivalent Vancouver car.  In the picture,  Scout
was was filled from end to end with hay (yes, a trolley hay ride) and
teenagers all over each other.  Terry titled the picture, "Everything your
parents don't want you to know about themselves."

Sadly, as parents, many of us would like to forget what we did in our youth.
My own daughter pleads with me not to tell our granddaughter what mom did.  I
guess most of us never really know our parents until they die and we are left
to read a diary or a love letter.  Maybe too late we find that there really is
no "generation gap."

And while we squawk about today's graffitti problem, should we remember all
the lip stick used to create initials, hearts, and cupid's arrows on the back
of trolley seats on a Friday or Saturday night?  Afterall, the stainless steel
backs on Pittsburgh's 1700s were there for a reason ... they were
indestructable.  (You knew somehow I'd tie it in to Pittsburgh, No?)

While I'm waxing about our youth, my last (to be sure it's time to quit)
memory comes from a 1900 edition of the Lancaster New Era in which the
editorial page contained the editor's own viewpoint, "What is wrong with these
kids today?"  It followed upon a story about kid's turning over out houses
with the farmer still in them.  Maybe what the world needs today are a few
good out houses...

Macmarka at cs.com wrote:

> In a message dated 12/3/02 11:49:02 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> fschnei at supernet.com writes:
>
> << After the last girl left, the doors were
>  closed, and the motorman glanced over at me, and tongue in cheek
>  remarked, "I  always bring the girls out here but never take them home.
>  Strange.  I can't figure out how they get home.". And with a grin, we
>  were off to Library. >>
>         And I wonder how many P.O.'d parents there were out of that bunch.
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