Okay, I'm on another nostalgia trip.
The year - 1946 and/or 47.
Pacific Electric - sounds like a utility company. Nope, I'm talking about Pacific Electric trains. So, I got to thinking, after posting about my Girl Scout days in Artesia, CA, about how I loved to ride the PE that came by very close to our house. So, I "googled" it to see if I could find a picture. There were tons of pictures of these trains. The one in the picture looks just like I remember them. This one was headed to Long Beach. I remember my mother saying "Some day we should ride the PE all the way to Long Beach." But we never did. We did ride it to Bellflower a few times, and that was a real fun trip for a 10 year old. We rode it many times from downtown Artesia out to our neighborhood.
Besides the fun of riding on these PEs, there was something else that I and other children in the neighborhood enjoyed doing. Many times we would go over to the tracks and lay pennies on them. Then after one of them went by, we would go back and find the pennies smashed flat.
Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane.
P.S. My Spiritual Sundays post is on my other blog this week. Charlotte's Weblog.
My mother and I rode the train all the way from Alabama to Texas several times when I was a child, to visit my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. It was a two-day trip, and we changed trains in New Orleans and in Houston. The last time we went was my first trip on an airplane, and it took only a few hours. It didn't feel to me like a real trip!
ReplyDeleteHI!!
ReplyDeleteOther then trains at Parks and amusement parks, I have only ridden a train 1 time to Wickenburg, it was for a girl scout adventure and it sure was fun!!!
I did take the grand canyon train too!!SO that was like 60 miles????
We love trains around here!!
Hugs,
jamie
Don't you just love the look at these old cars? So classic.
ReplyDeleteIn our area there are a few special train trips up to the mountains to see the autumn leaves.
People want to see the foliage without having to be in long driving lines with other leaf hoppers, but I think they also enjoy the train just for the ride also.
And boy has Downtown Artesia changed! It's not officially Little India. I have some Christian Indian Pastor friends who head a church that is tucked smack into a neighborhood of old homes.
ReplyDeleteI was in Girl Scouts, too! I loved being in the scouts! I'm not sure that I remember riding on the PE. I do recall that there was another train that went straight up a mountain out of LA. Do you remember that?
You may recall that Disneyland has the machines where you can flatten coins and emboss Disney characters on them. I have heard many stories of flattened coins on trains. Very cool!
Hugs, KJ
My Dad was born in Long Beach in 1932 and I actually did a few posts on Long Beach. You may have seen them. If not, go to the bottom bar of my blog and do a search on Long Beach. There are several vintage shots.
i've never been on a train. the memory you have sounds wonderful. take care rose
ReplyDelete