By Sandra McCleaster
Clang! Clang! Clang! Went the Trolley Ding! Ding! Ding! Went the Bell…….. So sang songstress and actress Judy Garland in the 1944 classic MGM musical movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. Even in 1944 that catchy tune could have been a throwback to Kearny’s beloved little trolley, The Dinky.
Trolleys were not immediately welcomed around town. It was believed that their sounds would spook the horse and carriages which were still active on congested local streets. By the early 20th century, though, they had become widely accepted as local modes of transportation.
Our Dinky was a single-cabin, cream-colored closed trolley. Small by a city’s standards (hence its nickname, The Dinky), it operated locally and daily from the turn of the century until 1923. The history of its exact route is a bit conflicting, but it’s generally believed it ran from the west side of Midland Ave., south along Kearny Avenue, then east down the Belleville Turpike, taking a right turn along Elm Street. It mainly served its passengers for pick up and delivery to and from the Arlington Depot and our famed Midland Avenue shopping area. The Dinky then traveled west along Midland Avenue to Kearny Avenue to simply repeat its route.
Automobile ownership and the emergence of bus lines eventually chased the beloved trolleys away. We really don’t know the final disposition of our Kearny’s Dinky, but cities like San Francisco and Boston have gone to great lengths to preserve their classic fleets.
The charm of trolleys is that they remind us of yesteryears. They give us an appreciation of how things “used to be”, contrasted to our 70 mph mindset of today.
Truly a simple pleasure of another era.
Sandra McCleaster is the president of the Kearny Museum.
Feature photo: Shown in the accompanying photo is an oil on canvas of Dinky, done by accomplished Kearny artist, Buddy Kirk, in 1982.