TROLLEY DAYS

By the winter of 1948, my mother finally had an oil furnace. In years past, she got up in the middle of the night and shoveled coal into the furnace. My father was a branch manager of an allied chemical company. He traveled 7 to 8 months a year and worked 6 and one-half days a week. He took time off to go to church.

My mom therefore raised 3 kids, my maternal grandfather, and a dog. My job was to keep my room clean and straight, empty wastebaskets, and keep my grandfather from walking out of the house and getting lost.

Mom would be in blue jeans and a red bandanna when she was washing clothes Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesday, she ironed. Friday was the day to clean the house, but Thursday she took me a few times downtown. I would start kindergarten the following year so it was a treat.

We got dressed up in our “Sunday best” to get on the trolley and head for the downtown area. Trolleys were fun and it took about 20 minutes before we were in a fantasy world of trolley wires, autos, bright lights, and busy consumers.

My favorite store had a main floor that was 2 stories tall and had prominent columns rising to the ceiling. When you first walked in you were overwhelmed with perfumes, new leather, and clothes. If you purchased something expensive, the clerk rang up the sale and put the money transaction in a cylinder that with the sound of a bell sent the money in open air track of wires that carried it up one floor and then over 300  feet to a man with green visor on the second floor mezzanine. He sat behind heavy bars and took money from a safe and made the transaction by a tube of money back to the clerk and then to the customer.

The rest of the mezzanine provided chairs for those who wanted to watch from the second floor down at the busy departments on the main floor. Elevator operators opened the doors and asked what floor you wanted. One of the top floors had a vista of a nearby river. To me it was a secularized cathedral and the movie houses were mid -20^th century palaces.

By the early 60’s a mall was built followed by many others all over the city. The downtown fell on hard times. The 70’s and 80’s, retail merchants handled noon time crowds, but that was all.

Today, the downtown is back with specialty botiques, old markets, and easy access to the river. Marinas and Multiplexes also dress up the area. Lots of people live in apartments, condos and lofts nearby. A new hotel has been built. The downtown resurrected and gentrified.(THE ECONOMIST/2007/12-22/102-104)

In the meantime, malls overbuilt and cannablized each other. Sales have fallen off. In one beautiful one, a serial killer with a semi-automatic ended the lives of many. The main problems though are the mall runts. They are humans 11 to 17, in various shapes, sizes and colors who go after school to hang out at the mall. They scare the other shoppers and do not buy much.

 However, after all these years, Cedar Rapids can have both. The Riverwalk may attract many consumers and security at malls can keep suburbanite shoppers happy.

Sixty years later, it is hard for me to recognize the downtown of my old hometown that I knew as a kid. However, sometimes, change is a good. Very good..