Chili Center 8

     My first experience riding the city bus was from the No.3 Firehouse at Chili and Chestnut to St. Helen's kindergarten. I don't remember much about it but it's kind of amazing to think that 4 and 5 year old kids were able to manage such things in the mid-1950's.

     The first really memorable bus ride was in what I remember to be 7th grade when I went to the Rundel Memorial Library with a classmate (Henry M).  I remember feeling like we were on a real adventure, going all the way downtown by ourselves, and exploring the library as if it were some incredibly rich source of information about everything - which it was to a 12 year old in those pre internet days.

     Throughout high school, riding home on the "Chili Center 8" buses became customary when one missed, or decided to opt out of taking the Gates-Chili school district supplied bus. Going downtown after school in high school was a bit of a thrill. Teenagers from all over would be walking around Midtown and you never knew who you might run into. The record store on the 2nd floor of Midtown was a favorite place to hang out, as well as Scrantom's Books, The Sibley's malt bar, the incredibly dense international newspapers and books shop, etc. A favorite place to eat was the Clintonaire Restaurant on South Clinton.
   
     When I was a junior in HS I got a job in a notions shop on Clinton Ave S. right near Main St. I would go there after school and pull orders for the big department stores (McCurdy's, Sibley's, Edwards) and deliver them via a hand cart. This meant, of course, that as all the cool high schoolers were hanging around downtown, I was pushing a handcart through the same spaces delivering buttons and zippers and thread and needles and a million other things to the notions departments in those stores….. so much for hanging out in the record stores or eating at the Clintonaire.
     We used the buses quite a bit in those pre-driving days. They were convenient and cheap and allowed us to go beyond our walkable boundaries.