Decoration Day

Will it ever warm up this year? Here I sit with packets of seeds waiting for the ground to warm up so I can plant them. (By the time you read this, hopefully they will all be sprouting!) We often recall the weather of years past by what it was like on certain holidays, birthdays, anniversary, etc. For example, the last bouquet of the year was often picked on October 8th, my monther's birthday. "The Last Rose of Summer." And yet one October 8 my brother froze his ear on a trip to Forest Hill cemetery . . . and it was rubbed with snow, the standard home remedy of that day. The first flowers of the year were evident on Memorial Day, even if we had to buy them.

The Incline Station on Superior Street

The Duluth Incline Railway

Preparation for Memorial Day began several days before with a trip to the greenhouse. Since we had no car, we took the stret-car from home to downtown, 7th Avenue West & Superior St., where we transferred to the Incline! Too bad that is gone now! Now there was a ride! As thrilling as a Ferris wheel ride, it creaked and groaned as it jerked its way slowly up the hill, stopping about six times to let passengers on and off. As the doors closed, the operator would pick up his phone and call "East car clear!" (or "West car clear") in such a sing-song voice that one had to KNOW what he was saying as otherwise one could never figure out what was said! We kids would practice it, imitating him until told to stop. Higher and higher it climbed until the buildings got flatter and smaller and we looked out over rooftops, the whole bay and the lake. The thrill was well seasoned with FEAR; yet we asked every trip to be told again how once long ago the cable had broken and the cars plunged into Superior Street. When the fear about surpassed the thrill of it, we reached the top!

The "Dinky"

There we transferred to the "dinky" which was just a trifle anti-climax after the Incline ride. That thing swayed and screamed its way through the woods, around curves as such a fast clip until it ended at Duluth Heights. From there we walked to Austin Greenhouses. My mother was a friend of the Austin sisters who owned the greenhouses so we were always given FREE our choice of a Begonia. For us children, this was always such a difficult and time consuming choice as each one looked bigger and better than the last. After Mom had picked out her plants, we were invited into the house for cocoa and cookies. (That was the only subdued part of the whole trip!) Then we were each loaded with boxes, as much as we could carry, for the trip back to the "dinky", the Incline "down-trip", the street-car and home.

Duluth Street-car. Note that it is electrically powered by overhead wires.

Add to that load, garden trowels, rakes, a picnic lunch and you will see how loaded down we were a couple of days later when we went to the cemetery . . . also via street-car! While Mom dug the grave-shaped beds and set out the plants, we kids played tag and hide-and-seek among the tombstones. No sad emotions involved for us as our grandparents had died before we ever knew them . . . it was a big fun-type adventure. Now we just pay a fee and someone else does the watering of the baskets . . . a lot less hassle, but . . . . . . ???

(Ed. note: A history of the Duluth Incline Railway is available to read at the Zenith City Archive. Follow this link. Also at the Zenith City Archive is a brief history of the street-car system and the "dinkies". Those street-car and "dinky" operators had to be a tough bunch!)