The Lost Streetcars
Author: Bill Roberts
Lucky for me I got to know
some of the conductors
who courageously maneuvered
those old rattletraps I loved
so much along the tracks
in otherwise quiet, war-time D.C.
You could hear them coming
they made so much clatter.
When one of the streetcar drivers
regognized me, alone at a stop,
he’d often chime his bell
a few times in welcome.
I had no special destination,
though we’d go either to Union
Station downtown or way out
to Glen Echo’s amusement park.
The bumpy ride was the thing,
as well as the view, going or coming.
The stiff seats were covered with
crosshatched cane strips, often
worn through, stuffing coming out.
When we reached the end of the line,
we were supposed to push the back
forward, face the opposite direction.
If the cars weren’t crowded, those
friendly old drivers would let me
keep my seat back in place, so I’d
be able to watch where we’d been
rathter than where we were headed.
Not a bad idea, come to think of it.
(Published in the Fall 2008 issue of Bellowing Ark)
Note: Thank goodness for publications like Bellowing Ark that appreciate nostalgia, the way things used to be. Maybe more small press publications should be so appreciative, though consider what happens when you mention the initials JFK, LBJ or MM to a kid, not to mention AARP! – total lack of understanding. But I remember as a kid going with a parent to the open-air market right near Washington Circle in D.C., someone telling me, Abe Lincoln used to shop here too, not all that long ago. Abe Lincoln? Who’s he? So, dumb is as old as you are. But, gosh, those streetcars were fun to ride, clicketty-clacking along. For those of you who only know buses and/or subways, you missed a great thrill. So did Abe Lincoln, whoever he was.
