My dad and uncle also spent time in downtown Macon. He remembers the first pavedstreet in Macon. He told me that one day he decided to "hitch a ride" with the Ice Delivery Truck... using his skates. He said he waited until the driver was in the truck and grabbed hold of the back of the truck. Well, it didn't take long before it was going too fast to hold on or let go.... until he felt his feet getting hot, looked down and saw all the smoke coming off his skate wheels... then it got so hot he had no choice. He let go and tried to veer toward the side of the road. He made it to the dirt at which point the skates stopped and he did not.
He and Royce found a cable that ran across the street between two buildings. He said it was just a cable, not electric or any purpose they could see, just a cable... but it hung down just above the streetcar cable. Somehow they figured out that they could grab it and get it bouncing when the streetcar was coming and it would hit the streetcar cable and bounce the connector from the streetcar that ran along the top of the streetcar cable and powered the car OFF the cable. Then they would hide and watch. He said they had specialists, teams of people down there going over the streetcar cable trying to figure out why it would sometimes flip off the cable at that place....
They were also responsible for making the streetcar company put sandboxes on front of some of the streetcars.... because they would take Octagon soap and rub it on the rails that went up a hill, then watch as the car would get a ways up the hi then slide back down. They had some fun I think! A real life Spanky and gang....
J