Tag Archives: Minnybus

Friday Flashback #345

As Westport’s Board of Finance and RTM engage in their annual debates over the fate of theWheels2U service — and the Westport Transit District in general — it’s time for another look back at the minnybus.

Back in the day, they were Westport’s cutting-edge (yet diesel-belching) transportation technology. Driving fixed routes (with Jesup Green as the hub), they ferried people — mostly pre-teens and teenagers — around town. At least one parent was known to park kids on a Minnybus for a round-trip or two, using it as a vehicular babysitter.

At least 10,000 youngsters used it as a place to escape home, smoke cigarettes, and/or make out.

Rick Davis was too young to do any of that stuff.

Kids still ride all over town. Today, Uber delivers them from Point A to B much more quickly (and expensively).

But — no matter how entertaining your Uber driver — it’s nowhere near as much fun.

(Photo courtesy of Gail Comden via Facebook)

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Friday Flashback #157

As Westport students returned to school this week — and parents returned to chauffeuring chores for all those after-school activities — moms and dads who were themselves kids here in the 1970s and ’80s may think back to their Minnybus days.

Back in the day, they were Westport’s cutting-edge (yet diesel-belching) transportation technology. Driving fixed routes (with Jesup Green as the hub), they ferried people — mostly pre-teens and teenagers — around town. At least one parent was known to park kids on a Minnybus for a round-trip or two, using it as a vehicular babysitter.

At least 10,000 youngsters used it as a place to escape home, smoke cigarettes, and/or make out.

Rick Davis was too young to do any of that stuff.

Kids still ride all over town. Today, Uber delivers them from Point A to B much quicker (and more expensively).

But — no matter how entertaining your Uber driver — it’s nowhere near as much fun.

Oh My 06880 — Photo Challenge #41

Last week’s photo challenge was hidden in plain sight: the entrance to the apartments above The Loft, at 9 Main Street. We’ve all walked by it — but have we ever really seen it?

Jacques Voris, Peter Blau and Diane Bosch have. All 3 quickly identified Lynn U. Miller’s image last week. (Click here to see it again.)

After 40 straight photo challenges, Lynn gets today off. This week’s image comes from Larry Perlstein:

Oh My 06880 - October 11, 2015

No, it’s not a photo from the archives. Even though the Minnybus* stopped running around the time that Pac-Man took the world by storm** , this street sign has endured.

But where is it?

If you know, click “Comments.” And if you’ve got any memories of the Minnybus***, send those along too.

*1 word — not 2, as on the sign.

** I am not kidding.

*** Or any knowledge of why this sign is still there.

Last Stop: Minnybus

Near the corner of North Avenue and Easton Road — right by Coleytown Elementary School — stands this little wisp of Westport weirdness:

In “A Stop at Willoughby” — one of Rod Serling’s most famous “Twilight Zone” episodes ever — a New York advertising executive on the train home to Westport finds himself transported to an idyllic town called Willoughby. In the year 1888.

This sign reminds me of that. Perhaps if I stand there long enough, a diesel-powered Mercedes minnybus will lumber by.

I’ll climb on board, ride it all over town, and suddenly it will be the 1970s all over again.