One of the advantages of suburban living
today, is the ready access of students to transportation by local
school bus. However, back in the day, Newark students had no such
available convenience other than to use the public bus services,
run under the auspices of the Public Service Gas and Electric Company.
In New Jersey today, bus transportation and all other convenient
means of travel are now run by the New Jersey Transit Authority.
It is odd to think that Public Service not only supplied gas and
electric service to all Newark city homes, but that it was this
same utility company that held the key to travel in comfort during
inclement weather for all Newark Public School Students. More often,
the way to get to school in the morning was to use one's own leg
power. However, during those frosty and slushy winter mornings,
it was a welcome blessing to be able to board a warm city bus, which
would more then likely deposit the students immediately in front
of the school building, or if not, at least at a designated bus
stop within a short walking distance from the school. What a welcome
alternative to arriving at school in a wet, frozen and wind blasted
manner!
One of the conveniences of being a Newark school student back in
those days, was the bargain accessibility of purchased bus tickets,
which would enable the student to ride the buses at a fraction of
the cost of a regular fare. Many students not only availed themselves
of these tickets to arrive at their school in the morning, but these
tickets would also be usable at the close of the school day, for
outside school activities, such as dental appointments, religious
training, athletic events, music lessons, and anything one could
think of as an extracurricular activity. As I recall it, I believe
these cut rate bus tickets could be used up to six o'clock in the
evening, thereafter they would not be honored by the bus driver.
Each month, I recall the tickets would be of a different color,
when purchasing a new booklet.
The student bus tickets would be bought in the form of a booklet,
purchased only at the Public Service Utility Company on Broad Street,
opposite Military Park. There was nowhere else within the city limits
at all where the tickets might have been purchased. The value of
each ticket was approximately two and a half cents, since the full
passenger fare in the 1950's was ten cents, later increased to (!)
fifteen cents! At that time, the price of each individual student
ticket increased, I believe, to a whopping (!) whole nickel, which
in turn fostered many complaints and rumblings by mothers! The student
would be required to write their full name, name of the school,
which was the destination, and the date of travel on each individual
ticket, for each individual trip usage. Upon boarding the bus, while
adult passengers dropped their coin fares into a spinning coin box,
the students would merely hand the bus driver the reduced fare bus
ticket, tearing it out of a booklet which held around a total of
thirty tickets; however, I cannot be certain of the exact number
at this time. Many a student suffered the ire of a bus driver, because
some of the kids would not fill out the required information. It
was rare for a bus driver, however, to refuse admittance to a child,
but nonetheless, after a bad day of dealing with the general public,
sometimes the most pleasant driver would reach his bursting point,
and unload his frustration on a lazy kid, who merely did not take
the time to properly fill in the required information.
I recall one of the nicer features was that the tickets were transferable,
that is, from one bus to another, if the student, for whatever reason,
had to take two bus lines to get to a destination. What a bargain
that was for two and a half cents a pop! Or even a whole nickel,
for that matter, compared with today's costs of living! Only back
in those days, and nevermore thereafter!
Since one could also pay their utility bill at the Public Service
building, mother would usually combine her downtown shopping trip
by once a month paying our utility bill and purchasing a book of
student bus tickets for me at the same time. I recall going with
mother on several of these occasions. One would approach the ticket
window at Public Service, which at that time resembled a bank teller's
cage, bars separating the customer from the service representative,
and bills were paid in this manner. The bus tickets could then be
requested for sale at that time as well. I recall returning back
home, sitting at our formica kitchen table, mother making sure I
properly filled out all information on each ticket, of course, done
in pencil and my childish scrawl. I recall how proud it made me
to fill out these little forms repetitively, when I learned to write
in cursive, each ticket striving for more perfection in my handwriting.
( These were also the days when Penmanship was a school subject!)
I would never be one of the scolded children, who would aggravate
those poor harried bus drivers! Mother would simply not have that,
nor permit such behavior at all, and I was a very obedient child!
As a small child, I would enjoy trips to Public Service, because
on the way to the teller's cage, one would have to walk past any
number of the latest natural gas and electrical appliances for sale,
displayed on the floor.>From coffee urns to toasters, but mostly
the latest in specifically natural gas appliances, overwhelmingly
which were stoves, refrigerators, and water heaters and major appliances.
I cannot recall any of the larger appliances being electric, since
such electric usage at the time, was outweighed primarily by the
more common usage of natural gas in the home. All electric homes
simply did not exist until the advent of the mid 1960's, but went
out of style in the early 1970's, with the advent of the ever rising
cost of electric usage. I recall going to the 1964 New York's World
Fair, when General Electric presented the "home of the future",
featuring all electric living, and it was a wonder to see and experience.
Especially featured was the kitchen of the future, which I am sure
dazzled many a housewife.
I guess it was the Public Service's subliminal way of suggesting
the purchase of these up-to-the-minute- conveniences to mostly the
housewives who came to pay the family's utility bills. Since Public
Service was in the business of supplying electricity and gas, sales
of such appliances were readily promoted. It was difficult not to
pass these appliances without a sales representative attempting
to entice a bill paying customer,( I suspect they were paid on commission
to sell these major appliances,) but mother and I hurriedly sidestepped
these fast talking sales reps, because we were not financially able
to invest in any of these modern conveniences. Besides that, we
lived in an apartment building which was at the time when most such
residences supplied, included in the monthly rental fee, the use
of a stove and refrigerator, (I recall it was an Admiral brand).
In the basement of the building was a coin operated Bendix washing
machine, but there never was a dryer, only a hand operated clothes
wringer, available for exclusive usage by tenants of the apartment
building.
One of my early childhood mysteries was where the door within Public
Service Utility led to? What lay behind those doors? At that time,
the Newark Subway included a stop right inside the Public Service
Utility Building, but since we never rode the subway, I never unraveled
the mystery until much later, of finding out what lay beyond those
swinging doors. To my childhood imagination, the subway entrance
remained a mystical portal to an unknown world, which would forever
remain unexplained to me by mother, but nevertheless open to wonderous
childhood speculations! Ironically, the entrance/exit to and from
the subway would also be in the vicinity of the bright and shiny
new major appliances, again, to entice the entering/exiting public,
to stop and take a peak at what wonders those modern and efficient
appliances offered.
I do not recall if there was an age limitation for the use of the
student bus tickets, only that I made frequent use of them especially
in the wintertime, with most neighborhood children doing the same.
However, I recall using them up until the point of my high school
days. It was truly a welcome convenience, which made the routine
trip to school an interesting one, as well as the thrill of a "grown
up" experience, and often it was fun to ride together with
friends, while taking in the sights of the city and its people,
and gleefully sharing in childhood gossip and current events going
on in the neighborhood and surrounding areas.
I do not recall when the usage of bargain student tickets were discontinued,
only that it was for most of us growing up in that era, a happy
and pleasant experience in our young lives. What a way to go!!!
|
