Street Car Days

As late as 1934, in my Indiana town, we had "street cars" also called "trolleys" that carried people to places they needed to go, or wanted to go. The trolleys ran on tracks through our town. We children loved to ride on those. The cars were attached to electrical lines that provided the power to run the trolley. There was a "Catcher" on the front of the street car to keep animals from harm.

Once a year, my mother's family rode 13 miles to visit their grandmother, (their mother's mother) who lived on a farm. They rode on the "interurban" (a trolley whose route was from town to town.) At the end of the line, the family, including the youngest children (my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Bonnie, as toddlers) walked four miles to the family farm. My mother said, "We had to rest from time to time." Later, of course, there was the walk back to catch the trolley home.

1934
At ten, I remember visiting that great grandmother who lived with her son and daughter-in-law, Uncle Charles and Aunt Ola. We were treated to a farm dinner. The food,including the meat was grown or raised on the family farm. In that farm house, Great Grandmother and Grandfather raised 13 children of their own and two granddaughters, belonging to their daughters.

A family member in our town loaned his car to my father, for our trip. As if our trip were going to keep us away for days, my father locked our house, most carefully. However, after our special outing, we were home before dark.

Marylee Manson Armour
August 8, 2006