Sunday, October 26, 2008

Trams in Belfast

TRAMS IN BELFAST

 

1925, I was about 13 years old.  

Trams were a great source of transportation in the city, and many a drama played out on them.   One Saturday, while I was coming home from camp I was riding the tram to my corner.  I was very conspicuous in my uniform, and very red sunburned face (from camping).  I was very aware of everyone's eyes being on me, so when I got off the tram, I swung my duffle bag over my shoulder, and I must have swung too hard, because the bag hit my back and knocked me off my feet.  Worst of all was the tram seemed to stay at the stop a long time, with every one watching.  When I finally walked away, I think my face was even redder.    

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One time, while I was working in the Havelock Hemstitching Company (I was about 18 years old) I would take the tram from our corner to Cromac Square in town, and then walk about 7 minutes to work in the center of the city.   The tram would be very crowded going home, so to secure a seat I would jump onto the tram as she went around the corner to the stop. This time as I ran to keep pace with the tram, I hopped up, but missed my footing and landed on the bottom step.  I clung to the rail, and had to raise my feet to avoid dragging on the ground.  I sailed all around the corner in this fashion, with my friends standing laughing.  When we stopped, the conductor said "I won't charge you for that ride”     

It should have but ..... That didn't stop me from running and jumping on trams.

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 One day, the family was going for a ride on the open-air tram.  As we got to the seats that are in a semi circle at the top of the stairs, mother missed her footing and fell on the top step.  Father just sat down and laughed!   It was very embarrassing for mother.  She lost her dignity, and ladies didn’t show their petticoats in 1928!

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The City of Belfast is like a basin, surrounded mostly by high green hills.   The Tram Service ran out of a Junction in the center of the city.  The trams would travel to the end of a line, which would be steep.   There was a "comfort station” at the end of each line for the drivers and conductors to use.  People would board the tram and wait for the tram to start again.   One day, the waiting people were amazed as the tram took off without the driver and conductor.  The tram gathered speed as it raced down the hill.  Some of the women threw their baskets out and jumped out after them.   When the tram came down the hill to a corner, it didn't know to turn, so it went straight across the road, and ploughed into a shoemaker’s window.  The workers were amazed to see a tram coming at them from the sidewalk!

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 The evening "rush hour" was always hectic.  One time a tram was about to leave a stop and too many people were clinging to everyt part they could get a hold of.  The conductor couldn’t get anyone to move.  He jumped down onto the road and shouted "I  won't get back on until the half of yez get off"   Someone  pulled the signal bell, and the tram was on it's way.  The  conductor hailed a passing truck and said "follow that tram!"  When the Inspector got on, after a few stops he looked for  the conductor upstairs and down.  He asked the people were he  was.  One bright lad said  "Oh, we had no room for him, so we left him back at Clifton Street".

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My mother told this one about her cousin Sammy.  At one time  he had a broad country accent, but he had lost most of it when he worked on the trams in Glasgow, Scotland.  He was visiting Belfast, and thought he would have a bit of fun with a Belfast conductor.  When he boarded the tram, he asked the conductor (in a broad country accent) "Is it as dear in the wee room, as it is in the loft (is it as expensive in the inside, as it is in the top?")   

The conductor told him that the price was the same.  So he went up to the top.  He immediately came down again saying, "I'm getting off, and there’s no driver up there!"