[PRCo] Re: Pgh.___1985

[Fred Schneider]

Love it, Matt.
My earliest memory was a ride with my mother, after seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, out to Grandma's
home on the 8 car.  It was probably war time.  PRC was using some low-floor low-speed cars at Keating at that
time.  What I can remember is excruciating pain in my ears.  The car was so noisy that it actually or
physically hurt my ears.  How old was I?  I tried to get a clue by using Google to find the movie.  It first
came out in 1937 and I was born in 1940; it had to be a re-release during the war.   So now it doesn't bother
me ... must be the same theme as eating hot peppers, the tongue and the ears apparently both get callouses.

I can also remember dashing into the platform waiting room in Wilkinsburg when a steam locomotive went past.

You see what my dad did to wreck my life ... all these terrible places he took me.  .

Matt Barry wrote:

> I hear that.   Pittsburghers, at least those of us who are traction
> fans, were lucky to have most of the East End lines until 1967.   Young
> as I was, I can still recall that mixed feeling of being very happy a
> PCC car was approaching, with being slightly scared as those steel
> wheels swiftly braked at the car stop on Penn at 40th street.   To my
> ears, the noise was loud and wonderful all at once.
> I don't remember what the fare was in '67, but later in the year I
> remember catching an 88 Frankstown bus, returning from grade school at
> Penn & 37th for a ride up to Penn &  45th, and I think the fare was less
> than 25 cents for me.     Recollection is that I slid a quarter into the
> fare box and the driver felt bad that he couldn't give me change.  By
> then, it was the "ready fare system."
>
> Fred Schneider wrote:
>
> >Can you imagine working in a trolley museum and trying arouse the publics' interest.  You need to be over
> >age 30 now to remember trolleys in downtown Pittsburgh.  Fifty-year olds might vaguely remember when we
> >charged a high enough fare to run the service.   You need to be past 60 to remember the West Penn or Jones
> >cars.  And you need to be around 95 today to remember when you rode everywhere on the trolley or you
> >walked along a dusty road.   (I'm speaking generalities, of course.  But 1923 was probably as close as you
> >get to the peak of railway operations and also enough paved roads they people were extensively using them.
> >Its sort of like trying to explain the life of Beethoven, Wagner or Vivaldi.
> >
> >My sixteen year old granddaughter got this "you're kidding me" look on her face when I mentioned that we
> >didn't have TV or frozen food when I was born, and that my dad was born into an era without telephones,
> >radio, automobiles.
> >
> >
> >
> >matt wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>NICE!
> >>
> >>Jeeez, hard to think of 1985 as 20 years ago, but danged if it wasn't!
> >>I still think of the PCC cars as having only recently been running on the
> >>streets of Downtown Pittsburgh.   Well, recently as the mid-eighties.
> >>
> >>Liked the photos a lot.    The sequence of coming down the parkway, that
> >>spectacular view that meets us as we emege from the ft. Pitt tunnels,
> >>something those of us who still live here probably take for granted more
> >>often than not.
> >>
> >>Often wished I had taken more photos during those years.
> >>
> >>Thanks for sharing.
> >>Matt
> >>----- Original Message -----
> >>From: "James B. Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
> >>To: "- 1714 PRCo__WP__JTC -" <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> >>Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:28 PM
> >>Subject: [PRCo] Pgh.___1985
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>*HIGHLY*  Graphics  Intensive  URL  below by Robert Pence who made a
> >>>trip to Pgh. and caught some of the last days of PCCs on downtown
> >>>streets  (but Many photos besides TrolleyCars as well.)       If I leave
> >>>my computer running for the rest of the week it may be completely loaded.
> >>>
> >>>http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?s=686c69bc86dc5e4f7007be43bf18f024&threadid=66134
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>Jim__Holland
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >