Trains, Planes, and Automobiles.............and bus

   Here comes another "when I was a girl" stories.  Don't run away, age and treachery will always trump youth and inexperience.

   I can remember the time before my Mom got her license. We would wait at the top of the street for the bus to come.  It was an adventure for a nine year old and seemed at the time to be like hours instead of a short ten minutes to get to the square. No shopping centers back then, all business was conducted in the center of town with occasional visits to the neighboring city of Salem where "Mr. Peanut" also walked.  

  Today most every household has two cars in the driveway.  This changes when a child turns sixteen and for some reason also gets a car of his or her own.

  Just like hem lines going up and down, society changes.  What is old is new again. We are told to take public transportation,  ride a bike, or walk which safes fuel in turn saving the planet.   These are all good things, but put in government control, all bets are off.  One form of transportation is maybe not the best for all but all transportation is costing more.  Even if you decide to walk more, it will be costing more and you will be getting less........

SALEM — Locals have a chance to weigh in tonight on proposed changes that will drastically affect MBTA fares and service on the North Shore.

Facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, the MBTA is considering two scenarios, both of which contain fee hikes and cuts to services — including canceling all commuter rail service on weekends.

Tonight is one of a series of public forums MBTA officials scheduled to explain the proposed changes and get feedback from the public. The forum at the Salem City Hall Annex begins at 7.

The MBTA has laid out two plans, one that imposes overall fare increases of 43 percent and a second with increases of 35 percent. The first plan has a smaller reduction in services, and the second has more cuts to services.

Parking perks

Parking has always been a problem for people with business at the courthouses in downtown Salem, including even those called to jury duty. It was one of the arguments made years ago for building the new regional courthouse on an open site somewhere out on the highway in Peabody or Danvers.

But for a favored few — judges, clerks of court, other administrative personnel — parking was not a problem then, nor is it today following the opening of the new J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center on Federal Street.