‘Bus Stop’, the Hollies song that inspired this post for me, is probably the best song ever written about a bus stop, assuming that there haven’t been a lot of songs written about a bus stop. These are vintage pictures of buses and bus stops from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. I thought it might be fun to try to get match-ups to the picture locations, but also match-ups to the lyrics in the song. Although the Hollies weren’t singing about a San Francisco summer, that could fit too. Anyway, “That’s the way the whole thing started, silly but it’s true.” (Thumbnail images)
Number 30 stops on Stockton Street on the east side of Union Square in 1977:
“Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say, “Please share my umbrella.”
The Number 2 Clement Express stopping on Sutter Street near Market Street in 1951
“Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop. Sometimes she’d shopped, and she would show me what she bought.”
Another Number 2 Clement Express stopping at the northeast corner of Sutter and Montgomery Streets in 1951: Number 2 doesn’t stop at this corner now.
“All the people stared as if we were both quite insane.”
Well, if you use your imagination….. some of the people in the old photo could be staring at someone they think is insane!
The Number 2 Clement on Sutter Street near Stockton in 1969:
“Thinking of a sweet romance, beginning in a queue.”
Neither one of these queues for the Number 2 were very romantic, and I was in the second one!
Number 30 turning right on Stockton Street at Sutter, heading for the Stockton Tunnel in 1978:
“Bus stops, bus goes, she stays, love grows, under my umbrella”
Looking east on Sutter Street from Kearny Street in 1958:
“Came the sun the ice was melting, no more sheltering now. Nice to think that that umbrella led me to a vow.”
Well, they probably didn’t honeymoon at the Hotel Sutter, although it may have been a nice place for it.
She went on to work for SFMTA, (and for some reason, her bus was always crowded) and he went on to become a private eye, seen here years ago in Union Square with a trench coat, flip phone, and, of course, an umbrella.
I’ll post a link to the song below; it is a catchy tune!
