My story on the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks brought in this response from Ellen (Bragg) Arnold, who grew up Billings and is now living in Boulder, Colo.:
“This story brought back some memories for me!
“I’m long gone from Billings by now, but back in the early 1960s, my girlfriend and I — who lived on the South Side and attended Central High — used to cross the tracks on our way to or from school. Not just the tracks, mind you; but the trains themselves. This happened mostly on days when the weather was decent and we were running late in the morning, or just didn’t want to wait around for the city bus in the afternoon. It was particularly daunting because girls were NOT allowed to wear pants to school in those days: we had to climb over the train couplings in skirts, encumbered by our books and purses, and somehow emerge on the other side unbesmirched by oil and cinders.
“Needless to say, our mothers had no idea of what we were up to and would certainly have fainted dead away at the thought of our doing something so dangerous (let alone so un-ladylike).
“A bridge sounds great; but not nearly so much fun as we had back then.”
