Car One
This is Car One—the very first streetcar operated by a municipal transit authority in America. It’s exactly a hundred years old. (There were streetcars in America before 1912, but they were owned and operated by private transit companies: San Francisco’s MUNI system was the first to put public streetcars in operation.)
MUNI celebrated its centennial today, and to mark the occasion they brought out Car One. We got to ride it down Market Street:
It’s beautiful inside, with lots of wood, shiny brass fittings, and rattan seats. It was gorgeously restored several years ago, and is now generally reserved for mayors to ride in during city parades. It was pretty awesome.
Also awesome: Robin got to hang out with a real life conductor, who even let him try on the hat:
This has been a banner week for Robin’s career aspirations: last weekend we went up to visit Nonna and Pappy in Carson City, and they took him to hang out with some firemen in the local firehouse. He even got to ride in the fire truck, which thoroughly blew his mind. Ever since then I’ve been hearing an awful lot about how he’s a grown up boy who can be anything he wants to be, and what he wants to be is a fireman, because firemen save people, and even more importantly they ride in the fire trucks.
Davy, on the other hand, was intimidated both by the fire truck and by the conductor in his uniform, and hid his face in Sam’s shoulder when the hat was offered. But he liked the streetcar ride just the same!
November 4th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
The sign lists Car One’s destination as “Nowhere in Particular.” That tickled me a lot.
Destination anywhere / east or west, I don’t care…
November 5th, 2012 at 3:51 am
“and even more importantly they ride in the fire trucks”
Ha! Brilliant!
He also looks absurdly cute in that conductor’s hat.
November 5th, 2012 at 8:15 am
inorite?
November 5th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Oh, he is too precious in the conductor hat! I love it. (Making me nostalgic for our trip to San Francisco a bazillion years ago, too.)
November 5th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Oh, if you ever come out this way again we’d love to play tour guides!
November 13th, 2012 at 7:12 am
:))
Super cute !
And great news. The Millennial Sword arrived by Amazon Saturday 🙂 The cover is gorgeous and the inside looks so “real”! Wow 🙂 Congratulations. I will let you know when I have read it (sometime in the next 6 months I assume).
Oh, and I was thinking of you the other days. This month Cooks Illustrated has a great recipe for palak paneer. I made it with two bunches of collard greens. Worked great (although next time I will use real milk rather then buttermilk in the palak part).
I suppose email would have been a more appropriate communication method. Oh well!
November 13th, 2012 at 9:32 am
Oh no, this is great! I adore palak paneer, and I’ve traded in my subscription to the Cook’s Illustrated magazine in favor of an online subscription, so I might’ve missed the new recipe. Yay!