[PRCo] The day after thanksgiving

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greeings to all

Several days ago I reported on my experience of
meeting John Dameron on the Friday that JFK
was shot.

Here is another Friday story.  It was the Friday
after thanksgiving in l950.  I had moved to Pgh
from New York in Feb 1950 and lived at 2865
Glenmore Ave in Dormont  I was working as the
Asst Mgr of Montour Motor Coach in Moon Run.

Montour was a 20 bus property owned by Harrison
Shields truck lines (36th & PRR in Lawenceville).
They also owned Citizen's Transit in Oil City, a
former streetcar operation.

I did not have a car then so I used the trolley and bus
to go to work.  I took the 38 down West Liberty to
the Union Bus Terminal at Smithfield & Water streets.

Like Thanksgiving, the day was overcast.  Snow started
enroute on the trolley about 8AM..  Riding on the Montour
bus to Moon Run thru Crafton showed snow increasing.

By 9AM, Montour was putting chains on the buses.  Our route
was out US22-30 across the Thornburg Bridge.  By noon
it was really heavy snow.  (Editor-Pgh Rys buses used chains
then also...no snow tires.)

Even tho this was a big shopping day, downtown was shutting
down.  We sent buses into downtown to bring people home.
We had a bus off the road in Forest Grove.

By 5 PM it was really bad and we were stopping service. 
But we still had two buses stuck beteen Oakdale and
Quinn's corner.  Our mechanic decided to go over there
and drain the water.  Like most lines then we did not use
antifreeze.

We managed to get there but could not go back to the
garage.  So the passengers and drivers and the mechanc and I
stayed overnight in a farm house.

The people there were very nice and we gave them an
annual bus pass.

Saturday morning, the mechanic and I walked thru deep
snow the mile to US 22-30 at Quinn's Corner.  It took
awhile and when we got to the highway, we found it alsmot shut down.

We hitched a ride on a snow plow back to the garage and then
every thing stopped.

I stayed Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues and Wed nites at a a driver's
house in Moon Run.  Highway 22-30 was closed until Wednesday nite.

I was eventually able to go downtown midday on Thurs and take
the trolley home to Dormont.

Quite an experience.

Trolley service was shut down at  the same times.  There was no
Parkway in Pgh then, the Liberty Bridge and Tubes were the
only new highways.  Every where else, you followed the
trolley tracks from downtown.  You could only go on
local streets to reach the cityline..

Rts 22-30 came thru Crafton and made a right turn on
SteubenStreet to toward the Thornburg Bridge.  Every
truck and bus had to go around the stopped Thornburg
shuttle trolley.  This was really a problem in the snow.

There was no TV and really not much news radio.
Trolleys were stuck on all streets, lined up 5 or 6.
The tracks needed to be dug out by hand.  In
short nothing. moved.

They declared an emergency and made downtown
off limits.  They used the Guard to police the area.
Tanks were used to deliver the milk and take care
of medical emergencies.   Every thing really
stopped until Wed.

I was in the National Guard then but could not
get to Oakland to the armory.

It took days to get the trolleys  and streets back
to normal.

A record snow fall and many problems.

Thats where I was on the day after thanksgiving
in 1950.

I was in NYC in December 1948 when there was a
similar heavy snow.  The streets, trolleys and Els
stopped.  But the subway ran.  I went out to
Brooklyn and the Bronx to see what was
happening.  It was good training for my 1950
experience.

Have any of you been stuck in a major snow?

Harold Geissenheimer

Karl  Were you in NY then?
Mike  Where were you/