Riding the rails of memories

By Michael Brewer

When my wife and I discussed our approach to this journal of nostalgia we decided we would not attempt to scribble our history in chronological order. Memories do not happen that way.  So, why push the river?

Life in Tucson for me has been infused with memories of  4th Avenue and the Old Pueblo Trolley.   All through Vietnam  I wore a leather wrist band that I bought on leave from a true craftsman on 4th,  for which the Avenue has  always been known.  I swore my lucky talisman got me home alive. If nothing else it gave me hope.

In 1983 when Old Pueblo Trolley formed and began the restoration of the  vintage street cars and the tracks, ( with all volunteer labor), the Cleveland Developer and owner of La Placita Village, with whom I was employed, made a small donation to the cause.   Our breakfast club, El Centro de Tucson with 62 vibrant downtown boosters, made the promotion of the Trolley one of our missions.

Ten years later, inside Tucson time, the operation of the Trolley became a reality.  The 20th Century enterprise was not unlike the first one in the waiting.

“When on earth is Charley Hoff’s street car going to be finished?’ asked one the University folks yesterday.

–Arizona Daily Star April 7, 1898.   So, you see not much changes in Tucson in our view of  timeliness!

“There is no excuse now why the people of Tucson can not visit the university as the famous horse street car line is now completed.  –Arizona Daily Star  May 19, 1898.

And now we are considered a vital link for commerce and development of the downtown.

Well today, 112 years later, I get the honor of being  the Conductor along the same line and the same set of tracks as our ancestors traversed.  And, as a Certified Tourism Ambassador I get to tell tales of the wild and woolly west.  There is never a Saturday evening that is not full of  laughter and joy. There is something about the Trolley that soothes the soul.  Ah… and the children, the smiles and the bliss of ringing the bell.

I wear that leather band to this day–every Saturday night, in fact, as I greet tourists and locals to the clang and the conviviality of the Old Pueblo Trolley and  relish the hope that this area once gave me.  This is hard to replicate anywhere.  Puttin’  my Conductor hat on the rack ain’t gonna be easy.

The Old Pueblo Trolley is an operating transit Museum with a very fine display of the history of transportation offered in our stand alone museum at the end of the Amtrak Station and Southern Pacific Depot.  For more information call 520-792-1802

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.