Changing Traffic Patterns

We used to travel Zarzarmora Street to go to Grandma's. Later, they built freeways, and the downtown area where they didn't have freeway yet had traffic lights. They were set for a certain speed so if you went down at that speed, they would all be green. Bobby Joe and I would say, "Pop, pop, pop," and watch the lights change as we went through the area. 

The first freeway across San Antonio was Highway 87 that goes up to Fredericksburg to the north and Laredo on the other end. They built the north and south sections on each side of downtown first and left the middle in downtown to be built later. That was the section that had the traffic lights. We called the freeway the 'speedway'.

Way back when, there were horse-drawn wagons in the traffic. As time went by, there were fewer and fewer of them until there was a time when there were no horses.

One Christmas when I was in about sixth grade, I decided to learn to ride a bicycle. Mama went to work in the sewing factory to get Bobby Joe and me each a bicycle. Mine was a 24-inch bicycle, and it is the only bicycle I ever had. I dreamed about getting that bicycle until I actually had it.

I rode around the neighborhood on all the gravel streets, and to the store. It was a little store called Duran's where we got bread and milk. I rode some around the school and to the five-and-dime called Winn's. Their slogan was, "Save a trip to town, shop at Winn's!" They had stores in all the shopping centers in the suburbs. Later on, I worked for them.

San Antonio always had good bus service. One day it was 80 degrees or higher out on the Fairgrounds at the stockshow, but that night it was freezing, so ice formed on the power lines. Mama sent me to school on the bus that afternoon.

We rode the bus downtown, and when I was older, I rode it to the junior college, which was San Antonio College, called SAC. When I got off the bus, I walked across San Pedro Park to the college. Later, when Bobby Joe went to SAC, he couldn't find the car once he had parked it there.

When I went to San Marcos to university, one of the professors used to come in on the train. If you wanted to see who was coming to school, you would go to the train station. Later, people went on the Greyhound bus or the Continental bus. That's how I went to school a lot. Even later, people came in their own cars.