Things I wanna know before I kick the bucket!

[LizzieMaine]

I'll never forget pulling out of the NY Port Authority in 1982 on the 3-day Greyhound run to Los Angeles. The driver, a gentle, caring soul, advised his passengers thusly: "I got three rules on this bus: no grass, no ass, no sass." Ah, When Travel Was Romantic.

 

[scottyrocks]

Buses smell bad. Streetcars make too much noise. Take your pick.

If buses are any indication, they would both be forever in my way when I'm driving.

 

[scottyrocks]

What I wanna know is why is it when you
board an almost empty bus, the person
getting in has to seat next to you.
Not sure which is worse--- Venus wearing strong perfume to cover the stench of not having bathed in days or Mars who
hasn't bathed and smells like an ashtray
that has been dipped in pee.

Here's what I did:
I'd pull on the cord to signal the bus driver to stop at the next corner.
I'd make my way up to the driver and
asked if such and such street was coming
up (I knew already) the driver said not yet. I then would sit down.

The next stop, another passenger would get on board.

Guess where they would pick to sit down?

I would just get up and change my seat.

 

[2jakes]

I'll never forget pulling out of the NY Port Authority in 1982 on the 3-day Greyhound run to Los Angeles. The driver, a gentle, caring soul, advised his passengers thusly: "I got three rules on this bus: no grass, no ass, no sass." Ah, When Travel Was Romantic.

It was the fumes that made me carsick on the Continental long distant trips!

 

[2jakes]

I would just get up and change my seat.

Today...I probably would do that.
Back then I was shy & blew situations out of proportion.
I felt as if everybody was watching me.
That stopped when a friend told me,
“you’re conceited, you think the whole world is looking at you
when actually nobody really gives a $h!t."

I looked around (my first time in a bowling alley)
and he was right, nobody was looking or cared,
even when I threw the bowling ball, slipped,
fell down sliding on my butt while the ball
went into another lane.
That was my first time I got a strike!

 

[ChiTownScion]

Buses smell bad. Streetcars make too much noise. Take your pick.

To you, it's "too much noise." To me, it's a symphony: compressor, air brakes, traction motors winding up, squeal of flanges, the singing overhead wire, and that clang- clang of the motorman's bell. Sad, sad the day when streetcar service ended in Chicago: I wasn't yet four at the time, but I can remember the PCC cars (local term: the Green Hornets) running on what must have been Clark Street, near Wrigley Field.

I did get to ride the trackless trolleys- trolley buses in Pullman, Brill, and Marmon- Herrington varieties- well into college. They were very quiet, and had an acceleration that, on a middle of the night owl run and with a crazed young driver, could shut down a Camaro without breaking a sweat. But compared to streetcars, they were a rubber bone to a starving dog.

 

[2jakes]

(when cop pulls over the driver for speeding---
“Say Barney Oldfield, what are you trying to do --
run away from your rear tires?")

Barney Oldfield;
American race car driver. Was the first to drive an automobile more than 60 miles per hour. When he drove the car pictured below at 131.25 mph it was the fastest a human had ever traveled.
For reference: in 1913 airplanes had a average top speed ranging from 45 to 75 mph .
Vanderbilt Cup Race 1914

Vanderbilt grounds served as a backdrop for this little tramp in 1914:
Kids Auto Race (Keystone Co)

 

[Fading Fast]

To you, it's "too much noise." To me, it's a symphony: compressor, air brakes, traction motors winding up, squeal of flanges, the singing overhead wire, and that clang- clang of the motorman's bell. Sad, sad the day when streetcar service ended in Chicago: I wasn't yet four at the time, but I can remember the PCC cars (local term: the Green Hornets) running on what must have been Clark Street, near Wrigley Field.

I did get to ride the trackless trolleys- trolley buses in Pullman, Brill, and Marmon- Herrington varieties- well into college. They were very quiet, and had an acceleration that, on a middle of the night owl run and with a crazed young driver, could shut down a Camaro without breaking a sweat. But compared to streetcars, they were a rubber bone to a starving dog.

I'm with you. I experienced the street car system in Boston - they were still (or were in the '90s when I lived there) working as active lines (not tourist attractions) in parts of Boston. And having traveled to San Francisco on business a lot, I experienced its still operating street car system (distinct from its cable cars - which are fun, but touristy). In both cases, the sounds and overhead rigmarole of the system (I love your description of it as a "symphony") made the city feel more alive and joined together. You could hear and feel its interconnectedness and see it's intra-city transit system in action.

Some cities I've been to feel like overgrown suburb shopping areas IMHO. But the cities with streetcar felt personalized and alive as a distinct entity in a way that many cities don't. I get it - if the sounds and visual obstruction turn you off, that's fair. For me, the streetcars make a city more intimate and animated.

 

[2jakes]

"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at--Elysian Fields!"
Blanche Dubois

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Mattapan run on the Red Line is still old-style trolleys.

There has also been talk in recent years of bringing trolleys back to Brooklyn, but from what I've read that's about as likely to actually happen as bringing the Dodgers back to Brooklyn.

 

[2jakes]

 

[1967Cougar390]

Here is something I’d like to know before I kick the bucket. Why doe’s Hawaii have an Interstate?

Steven

 

[2jakes]

Here is something I’d like to know before I kick the bucket. Why doe’s Hawaii have an Interstate?

Steven

Because they are built to "Interstate"
standards.
They carry an "H" number, rather than an "I" number differentiates them from the connected system of Interstate routes on the continental United States.

 

[LizzieMaine]

They're getting ready for the annexation of Japan.

 

[2jakes]

They're getting ready for the annexation of Japan.

They who?
Should we worry?
Can you do something about it?

 

[Fading Fast]

They're getting ready for the annexation of Japan.

That will be one heck of a long bridge or causeway.

Only ever-so-marginally related, but I found it interesting - only this past week, I learned that Hawaiian pizza has no connection to Hawaii as it was invented in the '60s, in Canada, by a Greek restauranteur.

 

[scottyrocks]

That will be one heck of a long bridge or causeway.

I hope put up a rest area or two.

 

[1967Cougar390]

I know, I know !

Because they are built to "Interstate"
standards.
They carry an "H" number, rather than an "I" number differentiates them from the connected system of Interstate routes on the continental United States.

Scratch that one off the list. If I kick the bucket that’s one less question I’ll have to worry about. LOL

 

[Zombie_61]

Today...I probably would do that. Back then I was shy & blew situations out of proportion. I felt as if everybody was watching me. That stopped when a friend told me, “you’re conceited, you think the whole world is looking at you when actually nobody really gives a $h!t."...

Interesting comment. I suppose from a certain perspective shyness could be perceived or interpreted as a form of conceit; I had never considered it from that angle. I've known some really shy people over the years, and once I got to know them well enough for them to open up and discuss it with me I realized one thing they had in common was that they definitely had an overactive sense of self-awareness and felt as if they were constantly being judged by everyone around them.

Your friend's advice could come in handy for those people here who occasionally express their own self-consciousness when wearing a new hat, or a new hat style, or a vintage suit, or...well, you get the idea. We usually phrase it differently--"Wear the hat, don't let the hat wear you"--but unless you're 6'5" and dressed like Carmen Miranda he's right; nobody really gives a $h!t.

 

[GHT]

They're getting ready for the annexation of Japan.

Back in the 60's when the Left wing Labour party came to power, Prime Minister, Harold Wilson , seriously contemplated the UK becoming the 51st State of the Union.