Mimmy, as her grandchildren called her, lived on Houston Ave a few doors from its intersection with 3rd St in Muskegon. She liked to come to Grand Rapids to visit them as often as she could, and we to Muskegon due our great affection for her. She chose to make the trip to GR and return by Greyhound bus. It provided near door to door service for her. The Greyhound stopped to pick her up at the corner of 3rd and Houston on its way out of town and dropped her off at our front door on Wealthy St. near Madison Ave. in Grand Rapids. How she arranged that I have no idea to this day, except she had her ways. On the other hand, taking the Pennsy doodlebug or GTW trains meant a commute on foot or cab to the Pennsy/GTW railroad Muskegon station at the corner of Peck St. and Laketon Ave …. about a mile from her home. In Grand Rapids she would need to cab it from Union Station on Ionia St. to her destination on Wealthy St.: an avoidable expense and added inconvenience for our widowed grandmother and those like her.
Trains got her to Chicago, Florida or California, conveniently, comfortably and in those days … affordably. However, local service, which Pennsy and GTW reluctantly offered, made no sense for her … or the railroads that were forced by the ICC to continue to provide way beyond any good reason to do so.
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