The Bus Station

 

In Marietta when I see a building that I remember what was there before the building and now the building is obsolete for what it was built for and has gone through a transformation I am reminded just how old of a fart I am.

 

A good example is the above picture of what was the Marietta Greyhound Bus Station.  We lived close to the site in the Clay Homes until I was almost  seven years old.

 

Before it was a bus station a big two-story house was on the property.  In it lived three siblings, two sisters and a brother.    When the house was demolished and the earth were in mounds of dirt and red mud bulldozed in heaps we would play there when no workers were around.  One time I remember throwing a bottle over a heap of dirt to scare my friends on the other side.  The bottle hit Tommy Hadaway and cut a big gash in his head.  There was no such thing as 911 back then but luckily for Tommy, the Old Hospital was within walking distance.  The gash required a clamp, not stiches, and in a way, I did Tommy a favor.  He was the center of attention.

 

Once the bus station was completed and in operation we got to know it well.  It had the big city sound of a loud speaker announcing arrivals, loading, and departures of buses.  This was Georgia in the early 1940s so it had segregated waiting rooms.  It had a grill that somehow held captive a smell-blend of mustard and grease.  I think that smell triggered my appetite every time I went in.

 

The taxis cabs you see  in the picture lined up did not normally park there.  The cabs parked next door on a little raised level grass and gravel plateau .  At one time the taxi company was owned by a classmate's father Ray Goddard and another time it was owned by my 1st cousin, once removed, Dalton Tyson, who won it in a card game.  Dalton also won the Pasttime Grill & Billards next door in a pool game.

 

Back to the cement landing where the buses loaded and unloaded.   One of my father's co-workers on the Marietta Police Force, worked there as the loudspeaker announcer and control manager before his second time on the force, I think it was either Ernest Sanders or Harold Griggs.  Also on the cement landing was some vending machines.  One vending machine  you could stamp out your name on a light r coin shape metal with a star on it.  It seems I remember always having one of those things on me as a key chain.  It also had photo booth.   The photo booth fascinated my friend Jimmy Pat Presley.  More than once he would spend a quarter taking pictures of his genitals.

 

After the bus station was no longer in demand because I suppose there were less demands for buses the bus station was remodeled into a law office building.