My transit fetish was an outgrowth of my love for roads and maps. I used to collect schedules when I would find them at the post office and at Thrifty's (remember when you could get them there? I wonder if Rite-Aid will keep the ice cream). I started riding the buses regularly in the summer of 1975, when we moved and the GRID service started. (Before, we lived in what's now Bryant/Vanalden, when it was a nice area. We had no direct RTD service then, just the 180 and 182 at Nordhoff & Tampa, and before that really nothing nearby, especially when Tampa still ended at the RR tracks. B/V is a perfect example of corporate landlordship.) In the fall of '75, I started riding regularly. That was in the days of 20 minute service 7 days a week. (Why can't we go back to that?) I didn't drive while I was in high school, so the service was very important to me. Even when the first cuts started appearing, it wasn't a problem. Then came July 1, 1979. The first massacre, extensive cuts in the Valley. (February of this year will be even worse. The Valley cuts must be fought!) I still rode the bus regularly to work when I lived in Los Angeles, including such wonderful commutes as Northridge->El Segundo. (There was no 574 then!)

Now I fight for L.A. transit from far away. You can take the boy out of Los Angeles, but you can't take L.A. out of the boy!