The latest addition to the "Everything-Old-Is-New-Again, New York" list is: the pull-cord on buses. That's right. Only weeks before fare hikes hit with an insulting sting, the New York City Transit begin returning cords to buses in an apparently significant money-saving move.
Although buses outfitted with yellow cords--and signs near them advising "Pull Cord to Signal for Stop"--have been navigating the city street for several weeks, the phenomenon had eluded me until just a few days ago when I boarded an M-3 bus threading up Madison Avenue.
Once on the split-level bus--the interior of which is generally an unprepossessing gray--there was no way I was going to miss the cords. They're sunbeam-yellow and jauntily draped across the bus windows at mid-level.
To me, there's something of the time-warp quality to their sudden appearance. I couldn't have said when they disappeared--although the facts are they were beginning to be phased out in the early 80's and the last one vanished in 1992--but I can say I was sorry to see them go when they did.
Well, sort of sorry. In what I'll call the old days of bus cords (and before certain, er, improvements), everyone wanting off a bus could make his or her need known by pulling the convenient cord. This meant a string of dings, until some inventing genius worked it out that the first pull deactivated the dang dinging until the subsequent stop. Once that happened, serenity of a sort was established and cords continued to be an expected and even reassuring part of the bus-riding experience.
The introduction of the yellow strip looked to be some kind of modernizing gesture and probably convinced many--myself included--that an improvement had been instituted. But had it? Locating the strips baffled many customers, especially since they were staggered. (The strips were staggered, not the customers.)
I, for one, was so annoyed by the placement of the yellow strips that I got in the habit of changing seats until I had a yellow strip just inches in front of me--if I was lucky enough to get a seat, that is. Moreover, working the strips on the back doors so the doors opened promptly was a true puzzlement for untold numbers of users.
But look, I speak as someone who welcomes change with the enthusiasm I welcome a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. So it was likely I'd disapprove of yellow strips and just as likely that I hail the return of the yellow pull-cord. It's embarrassing, of course, to admit that when I saw the first ones, I couldn't wait until my stop approached and, after all these non-pulling years, I'd get to tug the plastic-coated wire.
So it's even more embarrassing to admit that I was as miffed as a 6-year-old when after I pulled, I realized I was one pull too late. The "Stop-Requested" sign had already lighted up. You see, just as a single press on the yellow strip deactivates the device until the next stop, the same one-pull gesture also deactivates the new/old gizmo.
Unfortunately, nostalgia-lovers, I must now report that although the cord has been restored, the bell hasn't. In other words, ding-ding-ding did not go the bell--to paraphrase Judy Garland singing "The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis. Presumably, no bell is heard either on any of the 270 pull-cord-appointed buses already in service throughout the five boroughs. Likewise, no bell will be heard on the 580 additional re-corded buses due to dart through the streets within the year.
While riding the bus, I should add, I wasn't only appreciating the old-fangled cord. I also began to think about other items I've despaired of ever seeing again that were once reliable New York City features. What about second-run movie houses? Dream on, you say--what with one's own home being the local second-run venue, now that DVDs and on-line viewing are available everywhere. What about penny candy? Never gonna happen. What about wooden tennis rackets and wooden frames and leather football helmets? I'm not betting on it. Audiocassettes--well, they're no great loss.
There must be a thousand, a million other things that won't make a pull-cord kind of comeback. But whoa. It sounds as if I'm saying the old days were the indisputable better days. Not quite. I also remember the time of no ATMs and getting access to cash on weekends was a calamity. I remember when there was nowhere to go for just a cup of coffee. Now if you don't find a coffee shop within a three-block radius, you know you're living in the sticks.
So here we are. Proust had his tea-soaked madeleine to set off back-in-the-day memories, and currently New Yorkers have the yellow pull-cord.