There are a few things I wish I still had from my childhood. Or at least a picture of them. One of those is a series of drawings I did of PCC streetcars in the sixth grade. This was around 1972 when the public school district started desegregation busing. My parents didn’t want me bused across the city. Most parents on the west side didn’t.

So they put me into a temporary “freedom” school. A local teacher started a small school for kids who couldn’t get into parochial schools. It was sorta like a one-room schoolhouse with a mix of third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Kids whose parents pulled them out of public school, like me.

He had rented a house near 15th and Ulloa Street. I always sat in the bay window because it gave me an excellent view of the streetcars turning from Ulloa onto 15th. And during free time when the teacher was busy with the other kids, I started drawing.

I drew plan views of the streetcars. I remember them vividly. They were some of the first things I’d ever drawn freehand, and to a sixth grader like me, they looked beautiful. I don’t know whatever happened to those drawings. When my parents found out I was drawing streetcars in school, they were pretty upset. I don’t think they were angry at me, but they weren’t happy about it.

Eventually, a spot opened up at Zion Lutheran School. I didn’t have much of a chance to draw at Zion, but the good news was I got to take the streetcar to school. Zion was in the Richmond District, and I lived near West Portal. I’d hop on the streetcar, go one stop through the tunnel to Forest Hill, and then take the 10-Monterey bus to school. I did the same in reverse coming home.

So for my middle school years, I got to ride the PCC streetcars. It was wonderful.

I don’t know what ever happened to those drawings. As a kid, you don’t think about keeping things for the future. I was always moving on to new things. Who knows why or how they disappeared?

These days, I do have a beautiful watercolor of a PCC streetcar. I commissioned it from my dear friend Doug Gorney, who recently passed away. It’s right above my computer desk, and I enjoy it every day.