HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Panel Group 07City of College Station
Memory Lanes Oral History Project
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Today is r;/ /b , 199
(month) (day) (year)
I'm interviewing for the s time Mrs . 6AL a Crocke ;
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Miss, Ms., Dr., Etc.)
This interview is taking place in Room /0 6 of The
C01 ,- e: nc CecL— at 1300 George Bush Dr.
College Station , Texas . This interview is sponsored by the
Historic Preservation Committee and the Conference
Center Advisory Committee of the City of College Station,
Texas. It is part of the Memory Lane Oral History Project.
Have each person introduce themselves so their voice is
identifiable on the tape recorder.
with
The City of College Station, Texas
Memory Lanes Oral History Project
INTERVIEW AGREEMENT
The purpose of The Historic Preservation Committee is to gather and
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recordings and transcripts resulting from such interviews become part of the
archives of The City of College Station Historic Preservation Committee and
Conference Center Advisory Committee to be used for whatever purposes may
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I have read the above and voluntarily offer my portion of the interviews
- 7-1 (Name of Interviewee)
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In view of the scholarly value of this research material, I hereby assign rights,
title, and interest pertaining to it to The City of College Station Historic
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a olCI 6er -1111,
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List of photos. documents. mans. etc.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
City of College Station, Texas 77840
ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET
I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College
Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and
contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of
original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed.
Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all
claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense
thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of,
any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the
parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties
hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with
Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of
action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. -,
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IS/ZS' 914 s1
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ignature of
Cer‘ r
Name
Addres
2 - 47> 7 8
Telephone
Date of Birth
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Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and
employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability
of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property,
arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by
CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such
indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in
whole or in part from the negligence of city.
Date
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In progress
List of photos, documents, maps, etc.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
City of College Station, Texas 77840
ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET
I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College
Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and
contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of
original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed.
Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all
claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense
thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of,
any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the
parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties
hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with
Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of
action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. ri
_AAP it' , ,' d-v T
ieee ( se int)
Signature of Interviewee
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Name
6er , 107 .
Address
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Telephone y-oy) 72f /e x
Date of Birth 49 .$ 7 ' erg' A-
Place of Birth,,e tf4tM
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Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and
employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability
of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property,
arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by
CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such
indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in
whole or in part from the negligence of city.
Date
Initial
In progress
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
City of College Station, Texas 77840
ORAL HISTORY DATA SHEET
I hereby give and grant to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE, City of College
Station, Texas, for whatever purposes may be determined, the tape recordings, transcriptions, and
contents of this oral history interview. Also, permission is hereby given for any duplications of
original photos, documents, maps, etc. useful to the history project to be returned unharmed.
Interviewee releases, relinquishes and discharges CITY, its officers, agents and employees, from all
claims, demands, and causes of action of every kind and character, including the cost of defense
thereof, for any injury to, including the cost of defense thereof for any injury to, including death of,
any person, whether that person be a third person, Interviewee, or an employee of either of the
parties hereto, and any loss of or damage to property, whether the same be that either of the parties
hereto or of third parties, caused by or alleged to be caused by, arising out of, or in connection with
Interviewee provision of historical information, whether or not said claims, demands and causes of
action in whole or in part are covered by insurance. 1
HO/ L AA1b
Tr,e7
Int� (Please print)
Signature of Interviewee
75, 73 Flo L
Name
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Address
Telephone
Date of Birth (-7-0 -3
1 Place of Birth 6 J A
O)._V I�1 C i e r /✓!
Intervie (P) Print)
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7
rviewer
fAt (ar_
Place Interview
List of photos, documents, mans. etc.
INTERVIEW STATUS: Completed
In progress
Interviewee agrees to and shall indemnify and hold harmless CITY, its officers, agents and
employees, from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, causes of action, suits and liability
of every kind, attorney's fees, for injury to or death of any person, or for damage to any property,
arising out of or in connection with the use of the items and information referenced aboved by
CITY, its agents, representatives, assigns, invitees, and participants under this grant. Such
indemnity shall apply where the claims, losses damages, causes of action, suits or liability arise in
whole or in part from the negligence of city.
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Oral History Transportation
4 -16 -96 Mary Tucker rm. 106
Moderator - David Gerling
Interviewees - BB Holland
Blocker Trant
Glada Trant Crocker
>`kYat cop
Tape 1
DG - Introduction, signing permission sheet, name tags
DG - Thank you a lot and we're here today to get ya'll's recollection on early
transportation in College Station and the surrounding area. And this would consist of
horse & buggy, wagon, bicycle, roller skates, trolley, railroad, automobile, airplane, taxi,
bus, hitchhiking, and really any, any, way to get around that maybe I didn't list before.
Any of your recollections. And we're looking at areas from the 1920's, '30's, and up to
'40's, late '40's, 1950's.
GC - Not before 1920?
DG - Sure, if you can..
GC - Well, I can go way back before 1920.
DG - OK, you can just start where your recollection begins and then bring us up to the
future run. Just so it makes it easier for Mary Tucker to transcribe this later, I would ask
for you to speak clearly , and slowly and one at a time so that way when she is typing it
later it will be a lot easier for her to get everybody's focal point. So, Mrs. Crocker, if
you'd like to start.
GC - You think I should start?
DG - And, tell us a little bit about yourself and.. .
GC - Well, I'm Glada Trant Crocker and I was not born here, but I don't remember when I
came. I came first when I was about... before I was 2, then I left again and then came
back when I was about 3 1/2. And, for the most part I have lived in Dallas until I got my
Aggie, Alfred Parker, in 1930. And about the transportation, I took this little thing that
you sent, and the first time I rode in an automobile was in Oklahoma. I don't remember
that. That was before I was a year old, but the first automobile that my family owned was
a Maxwell and that was about 1911 or '12; way back. And, your question about how did
your family get to this area: My grandfather Philip Trant, William Philip Trant, moved
here I think before the post office was even set up, and they had a big hotel across from
where the Presbyterian church is down town now. And it burned, and then they moved
out on Dext Street. And he is getting ready to correct me for what I said wrong. Ha Ha.
MT - That's all right, you can go back and forth. I can distinguish your voices.
GC - The Episcopal Church. I am sorry, you are right. It's what we call the old post
office in Bryan. When you say the old Bryan Post Office, people don't go back that far.
You are right. Thank you. And, about transportation here, the first thing that I can
remember: We had what we called a Jitney which was a T -model Ford, you know. You'd
ring up the operator and they'd find the Jitney and send them over here, I guess for the
train at 12:00 or 4:00 or whatever it was. They were always there to meet you when you
came in and you told them when you were coming in, when you left, and they were alwo■
there.
DG - Oh, so the Jitney was kind of like a taxi service?
GC - Yes, it was a taxi service, but it was called a Jitney. It even had Jitney on the on the
door on the little leather thing I am so sorry that I can't remember that dear man's name.
He was crippled, but he was always there no matter if it was the noon train, the midnight
train, whatever it was, he was always there; clean up until I married. About the
transportation for the Aggies to get to Bryan: Girls- there was a trolley. I don't remember
the inter -urban when it was horse pulled. I don't go quite back that far, but I remember the
first one that was electric, and then I remember about three times it was updated before
they finally took it off. And the Aggies traveled back and forth by thumb which nobody
would... stop and pick an Aggie up, you know, no matter what in those days, and if you
could get by with it, you'd spend the night with somebody and you could get away from
your parents long enough that you could have a date after 12:00, or they stayed after
12:00. They would try to catch the 4:59, and if they missed that, occasionally they would
walk. And, I remember the first date that I had with my husband. He did stay late. I was
having him in town, and we... well, he stayed late and we just fell in love that first night
and that is all there was to that. But, another boy was there, and he had to guide him all
the way back down the highway, asleep, and they got back to college about 6:15 that
morning. Of course, Mama's not here or I wouldn't tell that. Ha Ha chuckle. But, of
course, there were horses buggies, and I can remember that my mother had a beautiful
horse and a nice buggy. I can even remember when we moved back to Bryan for a while;
we even had a surrey with fringe on the top. And, I can remember back here we had a car
very early. My Dad liked to go to places. We even went to Florida back in 19.. .
BT - Oh, gosh.
DG - When were you born?
- mumble-
GC - In 1925 we went in a T- model Ford, but mainly we used. ..I don't remember that
there were a lot of bicycles, I just don't remember that way back then that there was a lot
of bicycles, but there was walking, people walked.
BT - That was the major mode of transportation.
GS - Yeah and they, Aggies of course, as I said, there was some, you know, there was
traffic that much, but anybody would stop to pick up a load of Aggies going in any
direction. But as far as the transportation went there was no, of course there was no
reason for any buses in Bryan back then. That's about all I can talk to you about
transportation.
DG - You mentioned several times about hitchhiking or, like catching a ride. Tell us some
stories about. That's what it was called back then was thumbing?
GC - Yes, oh yeah. That's where you get that gig 'em. Yes, that's where that comes
from, that thumb. It's got to come from there, because you get out there and you thumb
it, and of course when a person comes by then everyone was out there thumbing it. But,
you Aggies was the first I can remember, but if anyone started from Bryan to A &M, they
would have certain cars by how those boys would get there and they were very
conscientious that the ones that got there first got the first ride. The ones who got there
second, they seemed to catch up with them. But I have made a lot of trips out to
2
Aggieland just to see what was going on out there. And I'd have them hanging out of the
car, all over, and you would take... you could take, and get some girlfriends, and we'd go
riding out. We used to come out and watch the boys march into supper to the hall, that
way, the big thing on Sunday night. And, the boys had to be there. They had to be in
uniform, so at 6:00 they could march in to suppers and it was a fight to whole. And I had
a special parking place and it was fun. But, you didn't, the girls used their cars, the boys
were not allowed to have cars at A &M. They could not have, or a time or two I heard
that a senior could for senior week or something. But, they were not allowed to have
automobiles, and so when you had a date with a boy, he would come to your house and
you would use your car and most of the time he would drive it. You know Daddy'd say,
"You drive," you know (ha ha). And that is the way until about 1930, and it began to get
a little different after that. Cars began to come in, but back then there was just no cars at
A &M that the boys owned. We were coming out this morning and I was shocked! There
were the cars everywhere, you know, and all the changes, but of course I had
transportation (ha ha). But that is about all I have to speak to you about that.
DG - Did you ever travel by train?
GC - Oh, yes when we lived here I used to be very tiny, and I had a size 3 foot. And since
we couldn't buy shoes in Bryan I had to go to Houston to buy my shoes. So, I'd get on
the train and go down and get some shoes and come back on the next train. We had,
before I married, we had the Sunbeam, then. And it came through at 12:00, at noon, but it
stopped at College Station and it stopped at Bryan many years. You could ride, I think,
for about a dime from College Station to Bryan. You could get on the Sunbeam train, and
then there was a midnight train going back. Well, the boys, a lot of the boys would ride
the train going back at night but.. .
DG - Did you ever travel to Houston or Dallas on that Sunbeam?
GC - Oh yes. I left Bryan, we left Bryan when we married on a Sunbeam. We had a
bunch of Aggies that were going on some kind of a trip and they gave us a hard time. Ha
Ha.
DG - What was it like to travel on the Sunbeam or on any train?
GC - It was great, really it was wonderful. I wish... I think it's something we made a
sad mistake about, letting our railroads go. It was the train we were not used to, used to
we had to have the windows open and the cold of the windows would get in our eyes and
you were dirty and everything. But, the Sunbeam was closed, and it was cool someway,
and I don't know how, but it was very pleasant to ride on. And it was fast. It didn't stop
for every place you know. And so, the other trains, I guess they're about the only trains I
ever do remember riding out of here after it started, because it went both ways. We had
the two railroads, the IGN, which was I don't know, it was just sort of a step child then,
and we just had the Southern Pacific which everybody rode more or less unless you
wanted to go to Atlanta or somewhere out there. Well, you didn't ride the IGN and then
finally got to where it was a lot.
DG - Did they ever mix up freight cars with passenger cars on the same train?
GC - Not in the Southern Pacific. No, I didn't see any. The Sunbeam was called the
streamline - it was a beautiful train.
DG - So it was more of an express - type train?
GC - Yes. It was.
3
BT - There were two schedules for Sunbeam: One of them left Dallas and stopped at
College Station and went to Houston. And that was the only stop in between. And then
one left Houston and stopped in College Station and went to Dallas and that was the 6:00
train and maybe the 12:00 train, I am not sure. And then there was another Sunbeam that
stopped at a lot places. It stopped at Bryan and at College Station. I don't recall it
stopping at Navasota, but they both looked alike. They were the same cars and the same
GC - Well, they changed schedules occasionally at one time because when we left here
when we got married, we left on the 2:00 train.
DG - 2:00 in the afternoon?
GC - Uh huh. 2:00 in the afternoon, but it used to come through here at noon at first, I
think, but then it was 12:00, because we had to get married at 1:00 so we could get to the
train at 2:00.
BT - When you got married it was not the Sunbeam.
GC - 1930.
BT - I don't think so, because I think the sunbeam didn't start until 37. I could be wrong.
GC - Well, I could be wrong too, 'cause I.. .
BT - Where was the trolley stationed at in College Station? I remember where it was in
Bryan, but I don't remember where I got off as I rode out here.
GC- Do you know where the Groats live out there? It's towards Northgate.
DG - Didn't the trolley, I don't know where the store is, but my mother talks about
catching the trolley at the old YMCA building on campus and going up to.. .
GC - I think it made a circle, but I think I can't remember riding that trolley out here,
but one time I know from there, 'cause we had a car. And ever since I started driving
when I was twelve years old. So I didn't ride. Now, the boys would ride the trolley and
the dates, but I don't believe I ever did ride the trolley out there. But one time, I came
out here, a group of us with picnics. I remember big old baskets and we got off the trolley
and we had a big picnic somewhere on the campus. But I do know that it made a circle,
'cause I remember that we got off I think where Northgate is. Because I remember I
could look over there where the boys slept and they lived just outside of I don't even know
now. I think it's in the middle of the highway and they had a big white house and they
lived out there. I just don't remember that. I rode the trolley. I can remember seeing it,
and I remember Dad talking about, "Well, I may have a horse pulling a trolley." I can
remember that. I don't think I've even seen a picture of a horse pulling a trolley. I know
that does not make sense, but I remember Dad talking about a horse pulling a trolley.
DG - It started out pulling it, being pulled by a trolley.
BB - My mother used to ride the trolley to school every morning. They didn't have a
school out here in College Station. She'd walk out here somewhere around the YMCA
building, and get off at what is now elementary.
GC - What is your mother's maiden name?
BB - Dylan.
DG - So she lived on campus?
BB - Well, my grandfather lived just across the railroad tracks, across from the Academic
Building
DG -OK
4
BB - When the old Creamery used to sit, they lived in a house right there. My grandfather
milked cows there for 37 years.
BT - There was a ring of houses all around the campus and I believe some of them, the
University bought some of them and used them for people to live in, is that not correct?
GC - Well, they moved them off the Campus.
BT - And then they moved them.
DG - Well, when they moved them off the campus I hear that they sold them to
individuals who would move them off the campus and make 'em private residents. There
was a whole row of houses on the campus itself.
GC - Yeah. Dean Kyle lived there and Dr. Bolton.
BB - The area across from Kyle Field, right in front of Kyle Field, all of that was houses
on both sides, where the MSC is, all through there were houses.
GC - Collated with the President's house down there.
BB - There was a hospital and the house my grandparents lived in is still on campus and
still being lived in except it has been moved 3 times. It's at the corner of 2818 and George
Bush, with a pointed roof a pinkish pointed roof that sits kind of back. It's not the big
white one. The little white one, but that was my grandparents' house for years. I have
pictures when it was sitting over there and you can still see where the house by the trees,
the oak trees.
DG - So, your mother would walk over and catch the trolley at the MSC to go to Bryan?
BB - Well, around the YMCA.
DG - YMCA. I'm sorry.
GC - MSC wasn't built yet.
BT - MSC area was all houses.
GC - I know there was a loop, there was a loop some where, but I can't because we didn't
drive. We tried to not drive cars where the trolley was because it was... Those T- models
gave you problems if you hit where the rails for the trolleys were.
BB - Has anyone researched where the trolley actually went on campus?
DG - We have some research to where it came onto campus, over to the YMCA area and
there was a. . . I believe you're right. There was a loop or a turnaround.
GC - I think there was a loop in there and then it went back. I could be wrong, but it
seems to me, looking back now, that the first place that it stopped... no, it stopped at
Hillcrest between Bryan and College. There was a little place called Hillcrest, and then it
didn't stop anymore until it got to, I think it's North Gate area now. Because it came in
that, because... See, Texas Avenue was not there we just had Old College Ave, and it
was just a ...
BB - Did the trolley stop at Union Hill? That's the area by Martin's Rest.
GC - Yeah, and it was only a mile from the Union bill to HillCrest, wasn't it?
BB - Mile, mile and a half.
GC - Children had to be picked up and brought into school. There were no schools out
laying in this area for children. They were all brought into Bryan, even Kurten, after they
got beyond the 5th grade, the Kurten area, you know. So, the children were all brought
into Bryan to school and one way or the other, and the outlying.. .
BB - We had several common school districts.
5
GC - Yeah. But after about the 5th grade, well then the kids come in. I know from
Harvey, the Peters' all came in and we were amused that they had this car and those kids
drove that car to school. But, it was... Pm sure there was a loop too, and I can't, in my
mind I never did ride it, and I can't figure out where it was. Except I know that when I
would drive, I wouldn't want to drive where that trolley was.
BB - Cavitt Street in Bryan was the main trolley route into Bryan. I.. .
DG - Did you want to add something? Anytime you want to jump in, if something jumps
in your mind, just jump right in.
BT - The trolley, when it got to Bryan, the driver would switch ends on the thing because
it came to the station at Bryan and you could drive it from either end, so it may have a
stop somewhere instead of a loop. Because, I remember we used to go as a little kid and
we would watch them gather up everything from one end of the trolley and go to the other
and he would drive it. The Trolley Station in Bryan was right behind oh... on 26th
Street, just about a 1/2 block from main street. After you would cross the railroad from
Main Street.
GC - There is the telephone, the Eagle used to be there.
BT - The Eagle office was there and there was a pay telephone there that everyone could
use. Pll tell you a story about her if I may... The Aggies could not go around out of
uniform. They had to always wear uniform, and my mother wanted to meet Alfred in
something besides uniform because she said the Aggies all looked alike in uniform; So he,
I guess he rode the trolley, he got to the trolley station in a white linen suit and sort of hid
inside the station, trembling with fear.
GC - I can't imagine my husband doing anything that was out of order. He was such a
precise thing except for me, bless his heart he would. Oh, talk about transportation and
Aggies, they had out on a little farm out about 2 miles for a while, and
they'd raised some hogs once upon a time, and he bought a Ford, and it just had a
platform in the back and a seat up front, and a steel wheel, it was a model T -and we called
it the slop -truck b/c he'd came and picked up stuff from the La Salle
hotel and all in big barrels -fed those hogs. Well, I had a brother, well he wasn't old
enough to drive, was he?
BT -Yes, I learned to drive when Dad ....
GC- I know we all learned to drive -I learned to drive standing up.
BT -I want the record to show that I'm the baby of the family and I'm a lot younger than
these old people.
GC -and spoiled.- anyway he drove the slop truck and would go into to and meet
Alfred at the Interurban to bring him out those 2 miles -that was a sight for him to, he'd
get in that old slop truck and go meet (Alfred) bring it out there...
GC -No I drove. I didn't even sit down and drive. I drove a 2 mile Ford standing up- 'cause
I could not and looked through the steering wheel, uh -There wasn't anything illegal about
that.
6
BT -I drove a couple of years before they required you to go in and have a thing called a
driver's license.
DG-Do you remember when that was that they started requiring a driver's license?
BT- Mid '38, '37 or '38. I remember what my first one cost. It was 50 cents and good for
five years.
DG -Good griefl a lot has changed.
BT -Do you want another transportation story?
DG -Sure! Yes, that is why we are here to day.
BT -Well, as I said. Pm a lot younger that these other people in my family, and I am going
to tell you a very early story about an airplane. a plane was forced to land over on the
west side of the railroad, vacant land then, maybe it was a little muddy and the plane nosed
over and it broke the propeller. The next day an airplane... now in these days, an airplane
must have been about '30 or '31. My sister had already married and was away from home;
and, so I. Let's say it was '31, when you heard an airplane you stopped whatever you were
doing and ran outside to look at it. If you were eating, you ran outside to see if you could
see it. If you were reading the bible before dinner, you stopped and ran outside and looked
up in the sky to see this airplane and so any ways, we heard this airplane and so we all ran
outside, and it got closer and closer and my mother said, "I think it's going to hit the
house ", and it landed in a pasture behind us. and they were bringing a propeller for this
airplane that was broken. They had he propeller over the side of my mother's car, now she
had a 1928 Chevrolet so this was about '30 or '31. We took that propeller and I went with
them 'cause I was too small to... and we went with the man to see the plane. And they put
the propeller on and on the way back, I got to telling him about how much Pd like to ride
in an airplane and we had everything all set and we were just going to take off make a
100, and come back and land. My mother found out and she stopped and them....
GC -Now that was a bad experience, that I had out there. This was sort of a hill. It's out
there sort of like Coulter Field, you know, not far from Coulter field, one time I had some
seniors survey and it was time to tie the , and there was nothing stopped,
everything stopped with a Trant reunion , so I couldn't go, and one of my friends was
spending the time with me and a plane landed out there ,and she and I were out there by
ourselves, on that hill, of course you did not think about being afraid of them. And I
thought it was a one time broke down and got myself engaged to a university of Texas
guy -don't know how I did that. But I thought it was him And she ran out to greet him and
this man almost knocked her down, came into the little house out back,and there came this
car, this line up there, and picked 'em up and gathered them and sailed off with 'em. So
we figured out later they had to be some (changed tape side)... It was scary.... But
we've getting away from A &M's transportation.
7
DG-Mr. Holland, it looks like you have quite a bit on trains over there.
BB -The sunbeam did start officially in June 1936, no officially in 1937, pardon me.
GC -Well what did we have? Some kind of streamlines
BB -No, it didn't streamline until '36. It was just an ordinary train, b/c it talks about it here,
and I think it was just ...
GC -I'm sure you're right. But they sure do... I will tell you one thing they really have got
wrong, that A &M has nothing to do with the transportation. I wish I knew
how to correct it. They've got Revielle just as long as they can be 'cause my husband took
care of Revielle one semester when he was down here and he graduated in 1930. They
have got Revielle coming here after 1930. That is just not right -the original Revielle was
here before I married.
DG-and you married when?
GC -1930, and he graduated in 1930, and we married in October, but Revielle was here
before that time.
BB -The sunbeam, actually the new train was called the hustler, and the nighttime train was
called the sunbeam. The new one came into College station at (12:10), hit Bryan at 11:56,
so it did not take too long.
GC -No, we called it the 12:00 train.
BB -and then the sunbeam, I think came around 8:00 at night. 7:30 -8:00. In fact 8: 'cause
they'd never light the bonfire 'til the sunbeam came. That's when they'd light bonfire.
GC -Well that is when I rode the sunbeam. It's when I took Daddy to (Mayo's) during the
war and I left here about that time.
BB -I have a scale model of it at home, a brass model, one of the more streamliner
trains of its time. Unfortunately, they cut it up for scrap instead of preserving it.
BT -It started about the time that movie was made.
BB -That is why they sell 'em, the train lines began to have the streamliners and zephyrs
and soon and competition.
GC -Well I do not remember calling it the hustler, just referred to it as the Sunbeam. I
came back home on the sunbeam from Dallas -we moved to Dallas , and when I'd came
back home, for a long time,we did not have a car. OK, I think that's all I can think of for
transportation.
8
BB- The IGN had a fashionable service, I can remember it coming in at night real late, I
do not know what time it was, must have been around 1:00 am or so but it would come in
and that was the 1 IGN train that came through there, I believe.
I'd spend the night my grandparents who lived right down the road. I could hear the
passengers getting on and off that thing real early in the morning and late at night.
DG -So that'd be the one stop for the IGN?
GC -Well I had a horrible memory of an IGN. It was in 1930 and I had a boyfriend that
was in the navy and he would came in on that train and I don't remember, but uh, it would
have passengers and freight occasionally IGN would do that, but this passenger train that
was coming in would come to the curb just before it gets to the station, and they had the
prettiest old station there, it was a beautiful old victorian station, and they just let it.., but
anyway, there was a body they'd put out there or one of those things, you' know, to go
down to the bottom, and it was a black man and they had rolled it up on one of those
things and locked the thing down and the lock did not hold, and that train was coming
around the curb and this guy was on the steps ready to get out to greet me, and this thing
started moving toward that train and I did not weigh a hundred pounds, but I began
screaming "bloody murder" and I grabbed on to that thing,and he jumped out and
and we stopped that thing just about that far from that train. I get cold chills now thinking
about it, I was so scared, I am sure I would not have turned it loose, and no telling what
would have happened to me, I was just frozen to it, you know? Try to hold that big old
thing with a full grown man's body & a box, you know? It was pretty frightening But
the IGN did have a combination. They had...
DG - Passenger & freight?
GC - Yeah, that's what this was, and it was something about late in the afternoon, I can't...
BB - I came along, it was in the middle of the night, that was during the late '30's.
DG - Did your grandparents also own a vehicle of any kind or how did they get around?
BB - Um - my grandparents on the Dylan side of the family I can remember my
grandfather talking about moving here. In a model T truck, one of the first model T
trucks & they moved from Rogers to College Station & talked about having to get off the
truck & cut tree limbs off between here and Hearne and get the truck through to College
Station. Of course, it was not paved either it was really rough travel.
GC - A lot of that was deep sand between here and Hearne, I mean it didn't have to be
mud, it was deep sand.
9
BB - Uh, my, uh grandparents had a model T, I know 'cause that's what my mother
learned to drive in, the 1st time she got in the car, kind of slipped out of the house &
started it up on her own. I think she was about 12 and there used to be a cinder, black
cinder road around, right beside the railroad track on the other side from where we are,
and if you got here early you remember there was a big hump over the railroad and some
how got that old model T up over that hump and she said she was scared to death and she
made that circle back, anyway that railroad hump was quite something at that time. Three
tracks across it.
DG - Across the bridge here at University it had three tracks going across there?
BB - Yeah, one side line track, and the main line, and the IGN line.
DG - OK
GC - They were close together right there uh, I know there was a road that went to Jones
bridge, it had one of those big humps and we called it the "thrill" and we'd go out and take
that thrill ride, you know.
BB - Well, this one was a thrill ride too. Couple people got airborne.
GC - had his own plantation down Jones bridge and used to go down there a lot,
but that was a big curve there, now they've got the highway going, the road going on the
other side of the railroad. But going round that curve, there was always somebody getting
killed on that curve. And there were several Aggies that I knew, 3 that I can think of that
got killed during the time that I was, you know, dating, on trains, you know, they'd try to
catch a ride on those freights and fall and I know one boy that was really in our group and
couldn't imagine him trying to catch a freight train, and ride on it anyway; he was such a
tired little soul and he did though and it killed him, you know, he'd fall & fall, and they'd
try to catch you, you just couldn't keep from trying to catch a freight train; cause they
would slowdown, you know and then they'd; but, uh- during the years there were a few
Aggies that were killed.
BB - Getting back to the thumbing of rides - The main places to catch a ride in Bryan was
over around Northgate and then they'd come into Bryan, say for football weekend and the
go to 25th St. where the Central Baptist Church is. That was one of the main "thumbing"
places if you were going to Waco, Dallas, and so on, and over here around East Gate was
the main "thumbing" place for Houston. You could go out there on football weekends,
maybe see hundreds of Aggies running up, thumbing for rides.
GC - My mother when, we adopted a baby, I called and told her that we adopted a baby,
so it was the weekend of the A &M, Baylor game, they were stacked up there around the
church, you know, and my mother had a new car and she had, part of the time her hands
were crippled up w/ arthritis, and she stopped out there and she said: "I'm not going to
10
Waco, I'm going to East Texas, Pm going over to as far as I can and then I'm going to turn
North, and as many of you can go," she's by herself, "As many of you can get in here and
go, but I want one of you to drive, but I'm going to tell you how to do it." And mother
said that the car filled up and when they came in to our drive way, well we had come in
from a buying trip, right in behind then, and she still had two Aggies in the car with her
and it was getting a little dark, and
Now that's off of the beaten path and they were trying to get somewhere up there and
Alfred said " Pm going to go take them over to Jacksonville, they'll never in the world
catch a ride over here in the dark, 'cause they had this and they
were afraid, he said "I'm going to take 'em to Jacksonville and put them on the main road ",
so he drove to Jacksonville 15 miles and put 'em out over there. You know and mother
said, "I'm going back home if you want to get here by 3 o'clock Sun afternoon," and one
of 'em came. He got back so he drove mother back home, but that's the way it was. If you
were and 'cause when you stop there, the one that was next in line and an Aggie did not
dare to get out a line and try to say "no I was here 1st" 'cause they all knew who was there
1st, but they would take 'em right down the line and it was wonderful for the boys, you'
know, get out there on that main road and go to Houston and
DG -There was no fear at all?
GC -No fear at all, no, no fear at all. I know many times I came up when I lived in
Beaumont early and I came up to Bryan alone, because an illness or something, and going
back, I used to have to go back through Houston, when there was not a bridge over the
Trinity River. And many times, I picked up a lone Aggie, you know and take him to
Houston and absolutely nothing to, if he had an A &M uniform, he had a ride in just
about anybody's car. You just did not pass up Aggies car. and if you were full, you'd let
him hold the baby on the lap. You'd put him in that car one way or the other. It was a
good, it was a good time.
BB -All the Aggies were in uniform, you saw them on the side of the road.
GC -Oh, yeah. I do not suppose they had over 60, ever in that Gold Brick bunch. If
they were not able to, they had 2 dormitories 2 big white bldgs, off back there by SBISA
Hall, you do not remember 'em. Um, 'cause they were gone before then and they were
civilians, they were handicapped one way or the others, but they would let, I think about
60 of them. I think that is the most they had but they were called "Gold Brickers" I wish
I brought my ashtray. I've got an ashtray. I'm going to give it to this cadet thing, going to
get my rings too. Um, but the very 1st thing that I ever remember being a souvenir that
was made for A &M, I have it. W.C. Mitchell, Mr. Hun Mitchell, was head of the um
Architecture dept and this was his son and Ed Crenshaw went into insurance business
when they got out of college. Ed got out of SMU and (Scipt ?) got out of here. So I was
their 1st secretary, 'bout 16 years old and 17 yrs old and (Script ?) ordered a whole bunch
of different things, for A &M souvenirs, how as going to get rich selling 'em at the
ballgames and everything and he was, they cam to the office and he unpacked 'em and he
said "Well, I guess you go with so many Aggies you out of have the 1st one of these, and
11
handed me that ashtray. and all around the centers, it's got the infantries and all the
insignias of everything . and then right on one side it's got a little gold brick and it was
painted gold brick, but these boys were called "Gold Brickers" and we did not date 'em. I
had two friends out there, but you dated boys in uniforms, women always do I guess. But
I have that ashtray and Pm going to give it to this place out there their going to
DG-yes, of course.
BB- My Dylan grandparents came in about 1918. '17, '18 and my Holland grandparents
came about a year later. And my grandpa Holland was a section foreman for TNM &O
which was of course was part of the Southern Pacific System and later
taken over by Southern Pacific and this is the section house in 1926 when they won the
award for the best kept section house on the Home Alliance Program and the section
house is where the cement plant is over here on Wellborn road. There was a section house
located right there and at this time it was yellow trim w/ brown eventually it was green
trim w/ brown before they tore it down.
DG-And what exactly is a section house? Is that where the ordered?
BB -This is where the ordered my grandfather had to land between here and
Hearne, and I do not remember exactly how far south it was. Uh, but anyway, he was in
charge of the railroad track through here. This is where, this old house here is where he
kept the side car, you know those little pre -cars that ran up and down preparing, some of
them pump and some of them ran on gas thing. There were also crew houses, regular
houses, see them down here, where some of the workers
GC -This is where the guy in charge lives.
BB -I can barely remember going into this house.
GC -I can remember that house. I can remember that house.
BT -Tell us how old you are.
BB -62. I was born in '34.
GC -I had enough of that lip out on a, let's see uh, where they had the uh, Ostrich. Do you
remember when we had Ostrich here? I doubt that.
BB -I can barely remember the A &M Zoo when you go down Farm Road 69.
GC -Yeah. That is what the beginning of it. I think was the Ostrich and
was out there and he was sort of head keeper of that area out there and he lived at there
12
a while and I used to come out there and they'd say they're dangerous, she'd better get
away from 'em. You know, but
BB -one of the highlights of my year eleven years when I was little was going to my
grandparents who lived over here on the railroad tracks and watch the specials come in
for football games. I mean the "special" trains would fill up the tracks all on the side tracks
and so on bringing people from Austin, or Dallas, or Houston.
DG -So there were a lot of side tracks out there?
BB -Yeah.
GC -I was in a train wreck on one of those specials going to Austin.
BT -you mentioned the IGN, and taking the midnight train. I've taken that train -we had an
Aunt who lived -my father's sister, lived in Kansas and her husband had worked for a
railroad company and she came, by the way -we had a family reunion every year we had
100 of them, this is the last year and she on the trains came to the family reunion. She
came every year from Kansas and she had a pass. But to ride on that pass she had to get
on the ride on that midnight train, and I
GC -Well, you are lucky because it got to where you had to go later.
BT -Later on, it got to where it only stopped in Caldwell.
GC -It was me to get to Hearne. I had to get to Hearne and when I'd come home from
Towes and Pd have about 4 hours to wait in Hearne, and uh, they'd all nearly always meet
me in Hearne.
DG-During the early years how did y'all get across creeks and rivers? In vehicles or
horses -Well I guess horses you could just walk across.
GC -The horses you, one time with Daddy, I went w/ Daddy back over to Grimes one time
and we were in a wagon. I don't know what on earth I was doing there, but they had this
flooded you know pretty well, not way up, but it was too high. and we stopped at the river
and Daddy said "I think you better get out and run up and down the road and play a little
bit, exercise your legs" and I thought, well, I did not know what that was what he was
trying to pull. So I ran up the road and I looked back and daddy was tying that seat on
that wagon -he did not want me to see that on the wagon, but then he decided he'd
put me on one of the horses, and carry me across, so he unhooked one of the horses from
the wagon, put me on that and took me across and boy that wagon was going this way
and the horses this way, ya know and he got across there and I got across and then got
back and I said, "why didn't you tell me you wanted to tie the seat on -I'd have helped
you." but, you know, it was a, that was down here and crossing
'cause they finally built a bridge I know on the Trinity River, they had a log, made out of
13
logs, you drive your car on that, then for one car and a couple of men, and they had a
cable run across and depending on those 2 men to hold that thing on course and they'd
pull you across. I don't mean the cable would move, you'd go, your hands along the cable
- that wasn't fun either.
DG-Oh, so it's more like a ferry.
GC -It was a ferry, you know, built out of logs room for one car. I got in the middle of
that thing and wondered where my brain was to put my car on that thing, but I made it
across there, but when I got over there I drove miles and miles and miles and back through
Houston coming' back, I wasn't going to get on that log thing anymore, but, uh, you
know,uh, people are peculiar human beings, they going to find a way to do what they
want to do,uh. They would float even a buggy, you know. They would hold to the horses
and then they would try to load it down and put sand. I know I heard somebody talking
about they put bags of things in the buggy to make it a little heavier so it wouldn't sway
from the horses and they just think of everything and get across and I can remember there
were very few bridges, there wasn't a bridge between Kurten and Iola up there. There
wasn't a bridge there, but one when they built Ferguson, there wasn't, wasn't even one on
the Trinity River going, you know, out . I can remember that and I can remember -
I can't remember when Jones bridge was built. Jones bridge -I can remember when a new
one was put there, but I can't remember the new some kind of bridge -but every time they
would have a flood it would wash away. But I had an uncle that owned a lot of land on
both sides of it and they'd, but um, there's a lot of those bridges on the Brazos that weren't
there. I can remember when there wasn't a bridge between here and Caldwell, and I don't
know how they -but they had pretty good size ferries, you know, and then some of the
worked with a cable that would wind, you know, I never did ride that one but I knew
there was one up there, but uh, there was a, I can remember there was a bridge in Waco
and there was the Jones bridge, I believe.
BT- Koppe's Bridge -where is Koppe Bridge?
GC -And then, there wasn't one in Navasota area and I don't know what
in Houston or hot, you know, where it went down there.
BT -Now there was a bridge across the Navasota River, it was just on that Brazos River,
near Washington -the Brazos. I can remember when we rode the ferry down.
BB -There was a ferry down at St. Perity?
DG-Washington on the Brazos - was -that ferry was there until when, until up into the 30's,
40's? or that late?
GC -They might have done that during the depression. I think they did. You know there's
a lot of roads that had a lot of things. We got a lot of things built, you know. Putting
people to work and
14
BT- That's when all those little old schools were built. That was
DG- During the Roosevelt era?
BT -Yes, that was a government process to give work to people and you could only work
a three day work week on those schools. We had two crews, one crew worked two days.
You're not interested in schools. Let me tell you where the Aggies used to park. The
petroleum building is right around the corner from the present petroleum building. It was
a Petroleum/Geology building and right behind it there was about two to three hundred
feet of space and then a little miniature oil field that the Petroleum Engineering students
worked in, as different kinds of things. I think all the . I worked for a
petroleum engineering department many years and worked at A &M when the Texas
Petroleum Research Committee was founded and the day student parking was that 2 -300
feet behind the petroleum building and before you got to the little oil field and I know Mr.
Vance was head of the department and he was always complaining that they were getting
their cars up to close to the Petroleum building, and that space for me to park. We had
about maybe 46 or 47 and we maybe had 50 cars. We passed that many parked
on the side of Bush on the way here.
DG-And so you retired from A &M in '47? Or you worked at the geology department.
BT -No, I worked for the Petroleum Engineering department. Well, worked for the
Petroleum Engineering department and really did not make a lot of money as I worked for
the university. Uh- unless you were a professor, and a professor I was not. They built
Stephenson and Mr. Vance came in one day and said, "OK, I've got you a job. You're
going over to Stephenson and you're going to be probably a custodian." That's when they
first built it. I placed all of the furniture in the Student Center when it was built according
to the decorator's plans and sketches and that's what I did. And he called me one day and
said, "All right, turn in your resignation and come back. We're going to form this
Petroleum Research Committee and you're going to be the executive secretary for us." So
I went back to them. I got a real job and made a lot of money. I made almost $200 a
month.
GC -That was a lot of money.
BT- Something was mentioned earlier about bicycles. In the years that I worked at the
University I don't remember ever seeing a student riding a bicycle to class.
BB -I can' remember bicycles.
GC -I don't remember bicycles either.
BB -All I remember is the freshmen walking in the streets. They weren't allowed on the
sidewalk.
15
BT -And you, and you, you didn't go anywhere in your car. All the classes changed at the
hour- 5 minutes before the hour and we'd have to go to the Post Office or go to the
library, or BECU to buy something. You didn't go around, even out because you couldn't
get out on the street. The cars had to yield the right of way to the walking students and
the streets were full of them.
DG-Oh I see, OK.
GC -It just wasn't that they had to get around on bicycles, you know, it was just more.
BT -The Academic Building was the last one, over that way until the Student Center was
built and the Administration Building last
but that hospital was right behind the Administration Building.
DG-So it was all close enough to where the Aggies didn't
really need anything other than their two feet.
BT -Oh yeah, they didn't need to. I guess you had sixty minute
classes and you could get anywhere by walking in ten minutes, and
go by the YMCA, and pick you up a Coke for a nickel.
GC- Somebody tell me, I've been sitting here, the name of the guy
that made the fabulous malts for 100 years in the basement of the
YMCA building. We all called him "Uncle...." Oh, he was- I don't
think he ever married. He had a niece that came here and lived and
she got married and lived with him and I was at a party for her and
there was three freshmen there, sitting over on a bench and I didn't
know until after my husband and I married that he was one of them.
I said something about him, and he asked me if I knew her and I
said, "Oh yes. I've known her," and I said, I said, um, I was at her
big party that they had when she got married. He said, "I bet you
were the one playing on the piano, weren't you ?" and I said, "Yes,"
He said, "Well, I was one of those fish setting over there." I said,
"Well, I wasn't looking at freshmen." I had gotten to the point that if
they didn't have on shiny boots, I wasn't looking at them by that
time.
BT -I know another transportation story, but it's hearsay. Are you
interested in something like that? The Buffalo Bill Wild West
Show was organized and it traveled all over the United States and
it came to Bryan and I don't know when this is supposed to have
happened, but the Cadet Colonel, there were a bunch of Aggies
that were going to it and then they had to sneak under the edge of the
tent and get in. What they got him, I believe it was the Cadet
16
Colonel or the Lieutenant Cadet Colonel, and accused him of doing
this and he had not really done it. They threw him out anyway,
wouldn't let him stay and a lot of the other Aggies heard about it
and picked up on it and broke into the arsenal and got a cannon and
put it on the railroad track and sent word to the show that train was
not coming through College Station. They packed up and left and
they packed up on the train and left and when they came down here -
we called it the F &B Station -I don't know where the was, but
the cannon was about where University Drive crosses the railroad
and the train stopped, and someone started walking up and they fired
the cannon and it was considerably over the top of the train and they
said they didn't. There was no negotiating. They told them the train
was not coming through -and I understand the train had to back up to
Valley Junction -I don't know where Valley Junction is -to work out a
place to turn around and had to go over to North and
and Houston down that way. Now that was told to me many times in
kind of different versions by several different people, so I believe
that must have really happened. I think maybe -I had an uncle that
went here -he studied vet medicine and I think maybe he must have
been one, maybe the first person that told it. Supposedly that was
going to A &M when it happened.
BB -I've heard the story, too.
GC- They've had some very- they -you get an Aggie mistreated very
much and you might have something on your hands. I can imagine
them getting mad. I can imagine it happening way back then.
BB -The old ROTC story for the horses and such 'cause I
guess for the new basketball coliseum
parking lots and soon. I can remember sitting on my grandmothers
porch watching the on review days - watching them cannon,
down the road and across the railroad tracks. big deal.
BT -This little story is sort of related to transportation. Maybe
everybody is aware of it, or maybe anybody doesn't know anything
about it. A &M had a mare and she was ridden by the Cavalry
students, and they bred her on purpose or accidentally she got bred to a Jack and
produced a mule, and mules are not fertile and she produced a mule that was fertile and
the mule had 2 foals, one was a filly and grew up and looked like a mule and the 2nd one
was a colt and looked very much like
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