NAVIGATING A CHANGING DOWNTOWN
Memphis’ longest-serving trolley driver Fred Pete to retire in August
For the last two decades, Memphis’ longest-serving trolley driver, Fred Pete, has driven his lumbering locomotives through Downtown, giving him a front-row seat to the evolution of Main Street and making his one of its most recognizable friendly faces. ● And now, after a quarter of a century with the Memphis Area Transit Authority, the 57-year-old Pete is retiring this August.
The amiable, quick-to-laugh Pete recently sat down at the MATA “trolley barn” on North Main Street, not far from the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, to recount his career, which started with him emptying coins from MATA buses and washing the buses. Then, 20 years ago, he became a trolley driver. Back then, before MATA went to 8-hour shifts, he’d spend 12 hours driving 30 minutes across Downtown and 30 minutes back, with 4-minute breaks in between. Getting to know riders was how he passed the time.
“That’s what makes it fun,” Pete said of getting to know people. “If you just sit there all day and don’t talk to anybody, it makes the job harder. The time always goes by faster when you can sit and talk to somebody you can relate to. It helps you get through the day and make sure you don’t have any accidents or anyone tearing you up.”
A traveler at heart from childhood
Pete was born in Bartow, Florida, a smallish town outside Tampa that he’s never revisited. When he was 4 or 5, his family moved into Lamar Terrace, a Memphis housing project that was demolished in 2005. Lamar Terrace was known as a “small city within a city,” with its own park and sports teams. Most of Pete’s memories revolve around food and community: He remembers sweltering summers filled with ice cream trucks and neighborhood barbecues during his childhood.
Growing up, Pete never thought he’d spend a third of his life driving trolleys. He was always a traveler at heart, though. He wanted to drive big rigs. But after graduating from Central High, he deferred those plans and instead joined the Army, where he worked as a small engine mechanic. In basic, he permanently lost several teeth while “playing football on a gravel road,” he said. You wouldn’t notice it — except that he loves to laugh: “I guess you can describe me as ‘outgoing’ and ‘friendly,’” he said, laughing.
After two tours in the Gulf War, Pete left the service in 1991 and relocated to Dallas, where he did what he’s always wanted to do: driving 18-wheelers.
After two years of driving big rigs, Pete decided to return to Memphis, where he was hired by MATA in 1996 and began driving trolleys in 2001. Recently, Pete’s job is to be an “extra” — a substitute driver for drivers who can’t make it in — working Tuesday through Saturday, starting at 6 a.m. It’s not a plum shift: he volunteered for it to let the younger drivers, some of whom have kids at home, have the regular, steadier shifts.
“It’s been an experience,” MATA trolley operations supervisor Terry Isaac said of working with Pete. “He is a very hard worker — man, and very dependable. I hate to lose him.”
People (and food) made the job ‘fun’
Pete said he stayed because he enjoys the job. And, looking at his wide grin and hearing his quick laugh, it’s easy to believe him.
“You just come in, do your job, and go home,” he said. “That’s easy. It’s fun.”
What really makes the job fun is the people, he added. In two decades of trolley-driving, he’s seen his fair share of tense situations, especially around Beale Street on the weekends. (This one time, for example, police had to yank a man off of the top of his trolley.) But Pete said some of his best memories involve small acts of kindness.
One time he was talking to a woman about a lasagna recipe — he still remembers her name, too — and the next day she brought one onboard to share with him and others. Everyone — even his supervisor — came by to grab some. Another time, knowing drivers have to eat on the go, a passenger brought him ribs from Memphis in May.
“Every day, we have the same people. It’s like driving a bus route,” he said. “... It made the job easier. You don’t have any conflicts. If somebody’s acting up: ‘Now, you come on now, John. Now, have a seat,’ y’know? ‘Leave that alone, we’re not going to do that today.’ ”
But Pete’s favorite part of driving a trolley was getting stuck on the Riverside Drive route, before the line was taken offline and a bus made to look like a trolley car took its place.
“I used to like to get stuck on the river during the (Memphis in May festival) fireworks,” he said. “I’d make it my business every year to get stuck right on that because usually people were sitting on the track there anyway. The riverfront trolley: I’ll be glad when they bring it back — if it comes back.”
Bearing witness to Downtown changes
Over the past 20 years, Downtown Memphis has changed dramatically, Pete said.
“Everything on Main Street, from I guess Court Square all the way down to the light at Peabody Place, used to be cardboarded,” the 57-year-old Pete said. “There was no business on this street at all when I first started driving out here. And even, say, coming off the river, back on Riverfront Drive, everything back there was cardboarded up. The only thing back there was a sugar factory and Spaghetti Warehouse.”
He said Memphis’ Downtown renaissance is overdue: “Most people like downtowns. Most downtowns I’ve ever been in are always built up, and nice, and nice residential places. Why not Memphis?”
The types of people on the trolley have changed, too, he said. There are still regular riders, but many of them are from other parts of Memphis or from out of town.
“It’s just more random folks than it used to be,” he said. “It’s just the city as a whole. I think most of the people, they used to work down here, had jobs in different places. Now they come down here just to come down.”
People are also more sensitive than they used to be, making conversation harder, he said.
“People get offended too easily about stuff,” he said. “I kind of cut it down a little bit because everything is offensive now. We used to have fun. We used to sit down and talk to everybody, bring stuff on the trolley. We’d pass food around and everything. We had fun.”
The job is also more stressful than it used to be, Pete said. That’s in part because of the increased federal oversight and paperwork that followed a fouryear shutdown, from 2014-2018, of all trolleys in Memphis. The shutdown came after two trolleys burst into flames within a six-month period due to motor control circuit failure, among other factors. With other trolley drivers, Pete switched to driving Downtown buses for those four years.
But after trolleys went offline, Downtown saw an influx of people and a boom in alternate means of transportation, including electric scooters and bikedrawn carriages. Driving a trolley through Downtown nowadays is a harrowing experience, Pete said.
“You really have to cut your speed on Main Street now,” he said. “It used to not be that bad until we stopped running, then people kind of took over that street. They’re not used to hearing us or seeing us on the street, so you have to be careful.”
So, yes — Pete is looking forward to retirement. He said he’ll be moving to Arlington, Texas, within walking distance of the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. He’s not sure how he’ll spend his retirement, other than watching the Cowboys. He made the Tennessee All State Jazz Band when he was in high school: Maybe he’ll start playing the trumpet with a band (”I can drive the tour bus!”). Or maybe he’ll drive buses across the country.
Whatever he does, after 20 years of being on the move, Pete said he isn’t slowing down.
Ryan Poe is a columnist and storyteller who writes The 901, a weekly commentary on all things Memphis. Reach him at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.
“That’s what makes it fun. If you just sit there all day and don’t talk to anybody, it makes the job harder. The time always goes by faster when you can sit and talk to somebody you can relate to. It helps you get through the day and make sure you don’t have any accidents or anyone tearing you up.”
Fred Pete Memphis’ longest-serving trolley driver