Do you remember the streetcars and the interurbans?
Probably not. My father, who was born in 1921, did. But my mother, who was born in 1927, did not. She lived close enough to Downtown Lorain to walk there. By the time she was old enough to use public transportation on her own in the 1940s, the streetcars were gone and buses were the norm. Plus she didn't get out of town much as a child either, so she never had an opportunity to take the Lake Shore Electric anywhere. So streetcars and the interurbans were just not part of her memory.
Nevertheless, that's the question being asked in the above article that ran in the Journal on November 15, 1963. It's a well-written article by Ralph Neumeyer with a lot of interesting local touches about Lorain and Avon Lake. I'll leave it to our resident experts who read this blog to determine its accuracy.
By the time of the article, it had been 25 years since the Lake Shore Electric had only ceased operations in 1938, so a look back was probably in order. Like this similar article written two years later by Neumeyer, a book is referenced that seemed to have triggered the proceedings.
Anyways, time marches on, and there are fewer and fewer people who remember riding the streetcars and the interurbans. That's why it's important for websites like Lake Shore Rail Maps to educate the public about them, and make sure their place in transportation history isn't forgotten.