You Can't Go Home Again

Its all very true and maybe part of the reason that today's generation doesn't share our passion. There are still places where you can find the fun, but they are usually outside North America.

Would anybody ride the "L" today if there was no A/C?  It can get very humid in the Windy City in August!

things must move forward, and todays generation such as generation in the past will move it forward, through new ideas in transportation, communication, medical, and so much more,  happy thanksgiving to all..  

Well..the good folks of Chicago did for decades, myself included. No offense but I think we as a country have become so privileged that being without a.c , franchised food, i-pads, cell phones is unimaginable..even foreboding. 

 

B+M Fan

You are right but everything comes with a price tag. Doing with less is almost a sacrilegious concept. Especially when it comes to model trains..LOL.

 

A Happy Turkey Day to all

Back in ye olden days the CTA didn't have any air conditioned buses, either.

 

Our 3 flat in Chicago had no air conditioning (moved out 1960,) nor did our new house in the 'burbs until around 1965-66. 

 

None of my schools were air conditioned. My dad's first air conditioned car was a 73 Impala.  My first air conditioned car was a 76 Blazer.

 

We were made of sterner stuff back then.

 

Rusty

Are you saying that even though my generation was intelligent enough to invent A/C that was compact, reliable, and affordable, we shouldn't use it so that we can be as "tough" as your generation?

The question is..can you live without it?

electroliner:  I'm with you regarding the sights and sounds of the old "L" system.  I used to love those 4000 series of cars and the way they sounded when they went above you on the Loop.  For that matter, I got the same thrill from a North Shore train grinding it's way from the station on, what? Wabash street, heading for Milwaukee.  Of course it was a better experience to be aboard those cars, and neither the CTA cars nor the North Shore had A/C, except, of course, for the Electroliners, which were a wonderful experience in themselves.

 

We never missed having air conditioning.  But, you're right:  You just can't go home again.

 

Paul Fischer

No.

 

I'm a creme puff nowadays.  Been spoiled by A/C, automatic transmissions, power windows, TV remotes...

 

Although, after sitting in a shop for 8 hours a day with the A/C set on snow, I find myself using my car's A/C a lot less in the summer.

 

Rusty

"The question is..can you live without it?"

 

I, as a fully credentialed geezer,  could live without automobiles (I'd walk), the web(I'd communicate by smoke signals and little white cards), chlorinated water (I'd just die of dysentery) and antibiotics (I'd just die of pneumonia).  Face it, those guys and gals in the 1800s make us tough guys look like complete sissies!  .

 

Why do we feel so superior as we get to being geezers?  Nobody seems to know.

........but was there a "goddess of the subway" back then?

My friend says:"I yearn for the good old days"  and I always counter: These are them

and thanks for for progress cause I certainly would NOT want to have to repeat what

the past civilization went through to get us to now!"

Paul

That was really the point of my comment in terms of the multi-sensory memories of those times. The smell of coal smoke was another one that seemingly vanished for me until many a decade later when I visited IRM..or that loud zing that went through the wires when the motorman connected the pole to the overhead..the conductor signal of two bells, the doors clapping shut, pulling down the traps on the stairwell..funny how history can be more than a bunch of dry facts. I might be a geezer to some but I am thankful for living in the time I did both the good and the bad, it was a gift..still is.

I do remember the NSL Chicago station..I ate at their lunch counter as I remember it the station had a sort of winding staircase up to the platform. I remember the NSL conductors locking the toilets up before we reached the El..prevented surprises to the pedestrians below. The guy leaning our in mid air held up by a chain across the door to pull down the poles on the fly after Dempster Street and hitting that ridiculously big knife switch to activate the third rail pick up shoes..Primitive but fun to watch. 

.I spent many a winter shoulders to the driving snow up on those El platforms..looking for that bright beam of light coming down the tracks..rocking and rolling..the 4000's were the best..I rode the Evanston Express many a time on either plushies or baldies..good times...

Bruce

Bruce, I've never even been to Chicago, let alone ridden the El... But your stories made it seem like I was there!

We survived to make it to geezerdom...

 

Rusty

Things do move forward and progress, sometimes for the better...and sometimes not.  I would say that you are fortunate to have experienced those times and that you have those memories, they obviously mean a lot to you.  Thanks for sharing them.  

Well, I recall the old Hudson & Manhattan cars inherited when the line was taken over by Port Authority.  A/C consisted of opening the windows between cars so a blast of hot air circulated through the train when it was moving.  I was overjoyed when PATH obtained its first A/C cars!  Now they're on a new generation of equipment and my only regret is that now you can't look out the front! 

I CAN get nostalgic about the Lackawanna's old "Edison" cars.  In summer, I opened the window, propped my elbow on the sill and snoozed all the way to Millington!  In winter, the warmest seat was the little jump seat at the end of the car in front of the electrical cabinet!  Trouble was, it was also next to the door, and the vestibules were NOT airtight. But my most interesting recollection was riding the Gladstone Branch looking down the isle at the end of the next car jouncing and bobbing on the short section rail. Finally, the cane-upholstered seats were really great at putting a shine on the seat of your pants.

The thrill of riding the "El" trains was still there for me, even in the 1966-68 era, when I commuted to college, Howard St to the Uof ILL. Recall when my train rode the outer elevated track, and I would look out to just clear air and wondering "is that little flange still holding us on the rail?"! Would occaisionly see the two steeple cab freight locomotives trundling along with a couple of coal hoppers for soon to be antiquated coal yards along the CTA. Always watched for the Milwaukee Road Kingsbury Line interchange yard, down below, at Irving Park Rd. And when we would plunge into the blackness of the tunnel below the Chicago River, it seemed like the train was going at least 175 mph!

       And the C&NW terminal. As railroady a building as one could get. As a little kid, would pester my poor father to take me "to watch trains". The 1911 Canal Street station was a regular stop for us. Recall all the wonderful oders, the echoing train announcer and the huge bronze placque honoring fallen C&NW workers who fought in this country's wars. And the surrounding neighborhood! Railroad salvage stores, skid row bums, wooden outside braced freight cars spotted at dingy 19th century factory buildings. All of this rich tapestry is gone, just ipod blandness. For me, at least, being a kid and growing up in the post WW II era was just great!

Absolutely nothing wrong with nostalgia. I indulge in it myself. It's only when it devolves into putting down the present, young people or people who like living in the present that one raises an eyebrow and prepares to call the undertaker (figuratively speaking).  I was responding to the latter aspects of this thread rather than the sweetness of recalling pleasures of the past that have gone.

A couple of memories that coincide with yours as far as the old Northwestern Terminal was the train shed that was encrusted with the black grey soot of steam..and I recall my first glimpse of the "400" that was gleaming in a astonishingly perfect mirror finish in the midst of the comparative gloom and permanent twilight of the shed.I suppose those wonderful murals on the bridge walkway are gone too. What struck me is what struck you is that there wasn't any texture left..I felt like Rip Van Winkle during my trip to revisit my former haunts.  "Antiseptic" was a word that came to mind. I thought of David P Morgan's revisit to a former secondary that hosted steam..there was not even a faint clue that a railroad ran there once..The title was "Look Away"..To say the least there was no reason for me to linger there.