Yeah University, where the (Edit) magnificently effective and successful train goes by now. I don’t remember exactly where they were though. Somewhere around Hamlin I think. They were on Lyndale in MPLS too, just north of 62. Couldn’t miss it. That was the old highway coming into town, before 35 was alive. Memory lane. I stopped by Menards on 494 when I was up there a couple weeks ago, and I thought to myself-this is where Atlantic City was in the 50’s. Like a Walmart but more fun with a good hobby section and video games. I was in the video section driving their car once (remember?) and thought I’d hit the mother lode. The coin changer had no cover on it and there had to have been $50 in quarters just laying there. Yeah I told an employee so they could put the cover on. They never even gave me a quarter or token. We never expected such back then.
The one on University was the St Paul location. In the sixties there were two on Lake St, as I remember, along with an A&W and a White Castle. All had carhops back then. Our cruising was either Lake St. or Central Ave NE, to the Sun Drive In. Rarely went to St Paul except to Como Park.
Hehe. I just love it when people get derogatory and call the light rail, which not only pulls hundreds of cars off the road and therefore makes everyone’s driving experience a little better, but also sees 25 million riders per year and keeps going up and is therefore an unquestionable success, the “choo choo” because Joe Soucheray told them to.
Kids these days.
Is it a deliberate attempt to be derogatory, or is this just a sign of advanced age, like when my grandmother called her refrigerator an “ice box,” or someone says they’re “video taping” something using their smart phone?
I still call television the “boob tube,” even though it is obviously devoid of any tubes.
When I was a kid, my aunt used to refer to every refrigerator as a “Frigidaire”, which was… strange… because she owned a GE “Monitor Top” fridge.
No, it’s a deliberate attempt to be derogatory. Minnesota neo-cons have been calling it a choo-choo for years, and insisting that it’s a “boondoggle” even though it’s wildly successful not only in its own ridership, but in fostering an explosion of new development along its routes.
It stems from out-state people not wanting their tax dollars to go toward a train they won’t use, which is actually a concept I’m fine with as long as my tax dollars don’t go toward their public projects (water, power, sewer, roads, police, fire, etc) that I won’t use.
I figure if the Twin Cities weren’t paying for their goodies we could more than afford to pay for ours without using taxes from outside of the metro area. But funny thing! As soon as the out-state guys want to rebuild a community center or build a road, they go running to the legislature with their hand out expecting the metro area to give them money.
The choo-choo garbage is part of a larger overall picture of people wanting us to pay for their wants, but refusing to open their own wallets for any reason whatsoever.
@Whitey
Refrigerator = Frigidaire
Home Freezer = Deep Freeze
Vacuum cleaner = Hoover
Like Frigidaire, Deep Freeze was a company that made hone freezers. I suppose that companies that initially grabbed a big share if the market had the manufacturer’s name attached to the product.
I am surprised, though, that all automobiles weren’t referred to as Fords, given the success of the Model T.
And some people still call all vacuums a Hoover.
I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but my late father was a civil engineer specializing in mass transit, and he was a huge fan of light rail. It’s quiet, clean, you can use the same tracks as diesel trains, and it’s safer than heavy rail.
Adopting brand names as a catchall phrase for a product is actually quite common, and it’s a little different than the phenomenon I describe, which is using the name of an archaic device in place of the device that replaced it. When my grandmother was born in 1918, less than half of all American homes had electricity, and nobody was calling their ice box a “Frigidaire.”
I guess the automotive equivalent would be when someone tells someone to crank the engine, meaning to start it, when their engine doesn’t have a crank.
Kleenex
Saran wrap
Band-aid
Chapstick
Post It
Popsicle
…
Another automotive equivalent would be referring to all SUVs as “Jeeps”.
I don’t think that this is prevalent now, but when a friend of mine bought a Ford Explorer, circa 1995, almost everyone whom he knew–except for me–called his vehicle a “Jeep”.
Funny how it’s the other way around for me. The only thing I consider a Jeep is the Wrangler. If someone told me to look for a Jeep, and it was a Cherokee or a Compass, I wouldn’t distinguish it from all the other SUVs.
Yes, but you are knowledgeable about cars. The people to whom I was referring were residents of NYC, most of whom didn’t own cars, and even the ones who did own cars were of the “all I know is that I put gas in it and it runs” philosophy.
Wow, talk about stereotyping someone using one term . . . At any rate, I used University Ave. very often and still do from time to time. It is a mess since the train was put in. Maybe it has been a huge success, I dunno, just doesn’t seem like there are many people in the cars and 494 remains pretty busy. One business I used to go to, just got frustrated and moved to Roseville. So who knows? According to my tax statement though, I’ve paid for my own sewer, street, water, and electricty.
Now for you kids . . . Refrigerators were called ice boxes a couple of generations ago because they used to be a box with a big block of ice in them to keep them cool. They didn’t have a power cord attached. The ice man would deliver blocks of ice about once a week, just like the milk man delivered milk in the “olden days”. In the winter, the ice companies would hand cut blocks of ice from the lakes and store them in ice houses, insulated with straw. The blocks would last all summer. Water in the form of ice was sent south to those poor folks not being able to freeze their own water. I’m not old enough for that but I do remember going to an ice house with my dad to pick up a block of ice in the summer. Interesting.
But sheesh, take it easy. Have a beer or something. You like trains, fine, but watch yourself on University. They are so quiet they can sneak up on you before you know it. Didn’t a guy just die though from being stabbed on the blue line? Yeah, crime. That’s another thing trains seem to help with though.
Fascinating. I had no idea.
Back to work now. Lunch is over. In another 40 years you can live a life of leisure too if you work hard, keep your nose clean, and be nice to people.
The cup holders can also hold s small bottle of kidney stones acquired by drinking those giant sodas we Americans enjoy. You could also use one for nacho cheese, another for pudding; catchup for the fries, another for a malted or shake; really the list runs on almost indefinitely.
Hmm. Good point. Let’s ban cars:
Drive By Shooting in Minneapolis
Oh, wait… Maybe not such a good point. Who knows?
People who can find, read, and interpret data:
https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation/Services/Regional-Transit-Ridership.aspx
I didn’t know that. But he was right, and car people should in my opinion be very much in favor of light rail and other mass transit solutions. Everyone sitting on a bus or a train is a car that isn’t sitting in front of you during rush hour. I’ve yet to meet a car person who enjoys crawling along in a traffic jam.
Speaking of iceboxes, does anyone else remember the card people put on the front window which had 25 on one edge, 50 on the next edge, 75 on the next edge, and then 100 on the last edge. The card went into the front window and whatever number was up indicated the number of pounds of ice was to be delivered for your icebox.