Six Words: Trolley, Button, Spring, Available, Support, Patent
When I was in elementary school in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, we lived near Armitage Avenue. There were two types of trolley car in the city, as well as the famous “El”, the elevated and subway system in Chicago. The more modern trolley cars, the Green Hornets, were introduced during my boyhood. The old red trolley cars that ran on Armitage Avenue since before I was born were still running during my boyhood.
Armitage Avenue was a major street, with automobile traffic and the street cars. You needed to be careful when you crossed it, and it was a long time before I was allowed to ever cross it by myself. For the very brave and very foolish, you could put a penny, if one was available, on the trolley car rail. You had to place it just right so that it wouldn’t fall into the crevice that was part of the rail system, and you had to time it just right, so that a car wouldn’t run over your penny and move it before a street car came. You had to dash out to the track and spring back to safety without getting hit.
If you timed it just right, with friends supporting you and egging you on, the street car would run over your penny and make it flatter than a button. Now that I think about it, pennies are already flatter than many buttons, but you get the idea. We didn’t have a patent on the idea, and I’m sure it happened elsewhere in Chicago and it will probably still happen where ever there are trolley cars. But will there continue to be pennies?