Montevallo's First Traffic Light

I took some notes about some stories that my dad told me while he was living with us. I started a few blog posts about them, but the posts never got past the draft stage. Tonight, my son said that my blog needed more posts, so I thought I would take a few off the draft list and publish them.

Daddy told me about being a little boy and seeing the first traffic light in Montevallo. I believe he said it was where the traffic light is today at the intersection of Main Street and Middle Street. The streets were not paved, but they had a traffic light. He had never seen a traffic light and guessed that probably most of the people in Montevallo were the same. He was standing on the corner with his father when the blacksmith, Mr. Logan, was coming from down the hill and a man who ran a saw mill was coming from the other direction. When the light turned red, Mr. Logan turned right and the other man turned left and they hit each other. Both got out of their cars and started saying, "I had the green light." It seemed they didn't understand how traffic lights were supposed to work or the traffic laws that included them.

There were no driver's licenses back then. My grandfather got a chauffeur license through the mail because he drove a school bus. He had the chauffeur license before he ever got a driver's license, and he never took a driving test in his life.

Daddy also told that their family's car was actually a school bus for years. My grandmother never learned to drive, which was not uncommon back then. There was no need, nor money, for two automobiles. Both of my grandparents were teachers. In order to make more money, my grandfather drove the school bus, which he bought himself. I am not sure who paid the school bus driver, but I do know it was a source of income for my grandparents. In fact, during the Great Depression, the state paid the school teachers with vouchers but continued to pay the bus drivers with money, that was a huge advantage. The school drew students from many miles around in a rural area. Many of them didn't have a way to get to school because their families only had a horse-drawn wagons that were needed on the farm. If they couldn't walk, they didn't come. After my dad got old enough, he would drive the school bus. He also told of driving that school bus when he went on dates before he had a car. I would like to have seen that.