The history of Greyhound Bus Lines

My dad didn’t learn to drive till he was 50. But we were still travelers. We would take the subway to the Port Authority Bus Station in manhattan for day trips to the Catskills and to Jersey Shore. Exhausting but enriching.

In 1963 we took train to Chicago to board 3 week “luxury” Greyhound bus tour of the American West.

Not driving or having a car never stopped us from traveling.
 
Pepper said:
My dad didn’t learn to drive till he was 50. But we were still travelers. We would take the subway to the Port Authority Bus Station in manhattan for day trips to the Catskills and to Jersey Shore. Exhausting but enriching.

In 1963 we took train to Chicago to board 3 week “luxury” Greyhound bus tour of the American West.

Not driving or having a car never stopped us from traveling.
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Now Greyhound is receiving lots of complaints from riders about newly released ex cons harassing them. There are videos of these individuals robbing and assaulting passengers. Many of the drivers are abusive, many buses are late and some don't even show up. Speaking of I wonder if Trailways is still around.
 
We used to have Greyhound service when I was young.

In those days it was a local ‘milk run’ where the driver would stop to pickup or drop off passengers in front of their homes and even help them carry packages to their front door.

In the winter it would be extremely hot and sometimes the bus would be transporting large boxes of long stemmed roses to local florists. The heat and the smell of the roses always combined to make me sick to my stomach.
 
One of the largest competitors in the south southwest was Kerrville Bus Coach. My last bus ride was a couple days after Christmas 1967. I was reporting in at Duncanville Tx DFW AD Headquarters. A very narrow rectangular piece of property that originally had been a USAF early warning Radar station. The Army took possession when the Nike Ajax Bases were all installed throughout America. It was Nike Hercules in 67 and I flew from Houston to Dallas and had to take a bus from downtown Dallas to Ducanville.

The ride was about 15 minutes and the bus stopped on the curb in front of the little base and let me out. My duffel bag was not on the bus so I had to wear same class As for several days before the bag was dropped by the bus line. It was Kerrville Coach and they have routes all over the southern states. It was Christmas and just about the entire base was empty. The 1st SGT told me it would be a few days before they would send me to my base 30 miles farther in Alvarado. He ask me if he could have my 506th Infantry shoulder crest, he collected those as a hobby. Of course he was welcome to have them.

He then told me that I would have to pull guard duty around the area due to the fence being down next to an apartment complex. It was wide open and of course the base was restricted. I thought to myself this was going to be a terrible week. He handed me a gas credit card and told me that I would be driving a little ford van in a race track all night watching the area. If you need gas, he says just drive off the curb and go get gas.

That was how I spent Christmas and New Years 67 / 68 . The New Years 68 I was on duty in the launch site.

https://www.coachusa.com/node/203
 
The story of the Brooks Bus Line is a study in someone seeing a need and fulfilling it.

The Brooks Bus Line ran between Detroit and Paducah, Kentucky. There were a lot of men who came from Kentucky to work in the auto plants, but their families stayed behind in Kentucky. The Brooks Bus Line picked up riders at shift change from the various auto plants and drove them to Paducah for a hurried couple of days with their families. Then they'd be picked up for the long overnight drive back to Detroit and delivered to the plants in time for their shift.

I'm not sure how many years they were in business but I believe they eventually became associated with Greyhound.

Back in the 70's, we went to see "The Detroit Rock Opera" (I think that was the name of the production), a folk opera about the history of Detroit. One of the songs was entitled, "I Took a Brooks Bus to Paradise But Got Off in Detroit".
 
Pepper said:
My dad didn’t learn to drive till he was 50. But we were still travelers. We would take the subway to the Port Authority Bus Station in manhattan for day trips to the Catskills and to Jersey Shore. Exhausting but enriching.

In 1963 we took train to Chicago to board 3 week “luxury” Greyhound bus tour of the American West.

Not driving or having a car never stopped us from traveling.
Click to expand...
Did you take the New York Central "water level route" train from Grand Central Terminal up the Hudson River to Buffalo? That truly was a magnificent railroad until the Penn-Central failed merger completely ruined freight and passenger service in the Northeast United States.

www.american-rails.com/york.html
 
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Yes but we did not go as far as Buffalo. I forgot where in NYState we reached. I want to say that town with the rejuvenating waters (whose name I forgot) but I don’t remember. Couldn’t hold my dad down though. He was an adventurer. He was more than glad to encourage my own travels when I was college age
 
Pepper said:
Yes but we did not go as far as Buffalo. I forgot where in NYState we reached. I want to say that town with the rejuvenating waters (whose name I forgot) but I don’t remember. Couldn’t hold my dad down though. He was an adventurer. He was more than glad to encourage my own travels when I was college age
Click to expand...

Niagara Falls maybe?
 
Aunt Bea said:
We used to have Greyhound service when I was young.

In those days it was a local ‘milk run’ where the driver would stop to pickup or drop off passengers in front of their homes and even help them carry packages to their front door.

In the winter it would be extremely hot and sometimes the bus would be transporting large boxes of long stemmed roses to local florists. The heat and the smell of the roses always combined to make me sick to my stomach.
Click to expand...

Something like this?

 
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jujube said:
The story of the Brooks Bus Line is a study in someone seeing a need and fulfilling it.

The Brooks Bus Line ran between Detroit and Paducah, Kentucky. There were a lot of men who came from Kentucky to work in the auto plants, but their families stayed behind in Kentucky. The Brooks Bus Line picked up riders at shift change from the various auto plants and drove them to Paducah for a hurried couple of days with their families. Then they'd be picked up for the long overnight drive back to Detroit and delivered to the plants in time for their shift.

I'm not sure how many years they were in business but I believe they eventually became associated with Greyhound.

Back in the 70's, we went to see "The Detroit Rock Opera" (I think that was the name of the production), a folk opera about the history of Detroit. One of the songs was entitled, "I Took a Brooks Bus to Paradise But Got Off in Detroit".
Click to expand...

Is this them?

https://lib.murraystate.edu/specialcollections/MS87-06c
 
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