The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 17

f7.v 'til Last Streetcar Driver Remembers Era aiexaahia BailaCctstGaft Monday, Asgust 24, 1981 IF(300S lems when the conductor creeped around its edges to collect fare. "You had to be quick when the passengers handed you their money, especially with dollar bills" he said. Tanner remembers paper money being whisked away in the wind. A single dollar equaled 20 streetcar rides and was a substantial loss. One streetcar began at lower 3rd, another traveled from Levin to Bolton, and still another went down Desoto to Union Station Depot Cars were parked overnight in a barn on Lee and 10th streets.

rang your ben. After nine o'clock no one was on the streets, and you could almost let the streetcar drive itself." Winters were cold on the cars. Many of the drivers used kerosene stoves to ease the chill for themselves and their passengers. Mrs. Tanner recalls how comely her husband looked in his uniform.

"They had to buy navy blue suits and then clipped brass buttons on." she said, "and they wore a navy tie and light blue shirt and a tall cap. "He sure was handsome, and just take a look at him, he's still handsome." Cars ran from 6 a.m. to midnight Tanner recalls, "If you weren't there by six. you didnt get to work." Latecomers were dubbed "extras" for three days, and only got to work when one of the more prompt employees wanted a break. Tanner's turn as an extra came only once when he got held up in traffic by a truck which had been stopped for loading whiskey during prohibition.

When Tanner began driving a bus after the termination of streetcars, he longed for the ease of streetcar driving. "You never had to dodge traffic," he said, "if anything got in your way, you just Linno and Eva Tanner sit in a swing on their front porch recalling Tanner's "good ole days" as a streetcar driver. As far as they know, he is the last surviving streetcar driver in Alexandria. (Town Talk Photo) I muffin By Donna Wbatley Town Talk Staff Writer Driving a streetcar in 1924 only brought in 41 cents an hour, but Linno Tanner recalls that era as The good ole days." Tanner, who recently celebrated his 85th birthday, is, to the best of his knowledge, the last surviving Alexandria streetcar driver. The city's streetcar days were few (1924-1926), but Tanner and his wife, Eva, remember those years as some of their happiest Usually working a nine hour day.

Tanner's hours increased to 18 when help was short "I would meet him at the corner with a sandwich when his car would pass," Mrs. Tanner recollects. She loved to hear the noises and reverberations of the bell sounded good, didnt it?" she remarked to her husband. Some of the memories don't paint such pleasantries. On Tanner's first day as a driver he pushed two cars into a grocer-store on the comer of Bolton and Lee.

"You were supposed to have three days of practice before starting work, but they sent me out on my first day and I just couldnt stop the thing," Tanner said. He thought for sure he had lost his job, but his boss simply said, "That's the way things go." No more mishaps followed. Two types of cars traveled the city's tracks those which were enclosed and open-air or summer cars. Tanner preferred the latter because of their light weight But the summer car posed prob to 1 IT. Vfc I ,1 II Linno Tanner, wife Eva and daughter Maurice stand in front of the City Park Streetcar.

Tanner drove a streetcar for the city of Alexandria from 1524-1926. Photo courtesy of Tanner. Tanner's sister and daughter stand in front of background provided shade for awaiting pas-an old Alexandria streetcar. A shed in the sengers. Photo courtesy of Tanner.

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