[PRCo] Re: Interesting PATransit PCC Photos

[Fred Schneider]

You got that right Bob.   At 20 you could have walked home.  We don't worry do we.   And we could have run to the next stop and caught up to the car.   

I walked home at night many times when I missed a bus.  No big deal ... it was only 4 1/2 miles.   

Walking 20 miles a day when my age equalled those miles was a cake walk even carrying 20 pounds of camera equipment.  All of those pictures in the PCC book that I took in Shaker Heights, Pittsburgh, Boston, St. Louis, El Paso, and so forth were done by walking.  Yes, I walked from Drake to Pittsburgh.  From Trafford to East Pittsburgh to Wilkinsburgh.   From McKeesport to Hays.   From 62nd St. to Aspinwall.   From West View to Keating to Pittsburgh.   From Carnegie to Ingram.   From McKees Rocks to Pittsburgh.   From Riverside to Boston.  The entire Newark Subway including the tunnel (kids are foolish).   Clayton to downtown St. Louis.   The entire Shaker Heights Rapid Transit ... every inch of it.   And every inch of the P&W ---- take that back, I walked the highway bridge over the Schuylkill River instead of the P&W bridge between Norristown and Bridgeport.    And all 36 miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad's low-grade from Columbia PA to Christiana ... did that in two days.  

Then I bought a used car (a '49 Packard) at age 21.   The body went to hell.   

Now I can do a mile on a treadmill at the gym with the arms to hold me up.   

I think back and dream and wish I could still do it.   

And it's been another one of those weeks ... the kind you have when you get older ... a guy who used to work for me sent an e-mail yesterday telling me he has cancer in his liver.   Now we know that chemotherapy for something like that is something they do to prolong life until the body rejects the chemo and then......   And then today my cousin in Wisconsin wrote to say her twin brother died in the night of complications from open heart surgery at age 66.   

In spite of it all, old age still remains better than the option.

And even if we look in the mirror one morning and see our aging father, WE HAVE WONDERFUL MEMORIES.   It's wonderful to look at pictures and say,  I was there, I saw it.   


On Feb 28, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:

> 
> Yes, an excellent collection of photos, especially the snow shots.  I was interested in seeing the photo of the crowd around the last trolley at the Avalon loop - I couldn't find myself in the view, so I must have been behind the photographer. 
> 
> 
> 
> I wonder if I was  concern ed about being able to get back on that crowded trolley for the trip downtown -  I wouldn't want to be stranded in Avalon at 1 am, but maybe I only think about things like that after aging 46 years . 
> 
> 
> 
> Bob 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
> 
> From: "Matthew R Barry" <mrb190 at pitt.edu> 
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org 
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 8:08:49 AM 
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Interesting PATransit PCC Photos 
> 
> Great collection!  Thank you for posting. 
> 
> ________________________________________ 
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org [pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org] On Behalf Of TEP [tompark at telus.net] 
> Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 8:22 PM 
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org 
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Interesting PATransit PCC Photos 
> 
> My PRCo slide selection is at https://picasaweb.google.com/etbtraction. 
> Two albums, snow and general. 
> 
> Some of you have kindly put locations and captions on the slides. 
> Additions are always welcome. 
> 
> Thanks 
> 
> Tom Parkinson P.Eng, Vancouver BC Canada 604-733-5430, fax 604-733-5437 
> 
> 
>