Downtown Dallas After 37 Years

I went downtown Dallas the other day; hadn't been there since the last of July 1974, right before I got married and moved away for good. It was in short, a strange homecoming and encounter of present vs. past. Both times were under similar circumstances: traveling downtown during the busy workweek by public transport, attending a training in a tall building comprising the city's canyons there, and each prior to taking a proposed job in Central Texas. That was my first full-time employment and this was to be my last; neither job panned out.
There were noticeable differences, too. I hardly recognized the place, except for the streets. At least their names remain the same. Gone is the skyline of friendly buildings of my youthful Dallas, like the old Majestic Theater or the Magnolia (Mobil) Building with its well-known revolving red Pegasus atop her. I did find the lone rectangular structure of the former Southland Life Building and the Republic National Bank Building, whose large aluminum jet spire still supports a rotating searchlight at its pinnacle. I recall seeing it sweeping the sky once upon a time, as a beacon symbolizing Dallas of the 1960s. All now dwarfed by more modern skyscrapers that had long since boxed and buried them in shadows beneath.
The one thing I didn't miss was having to take the city bus from the suburbs. I rode the DART train down all three days. It actually became the highlight of my morning/afternoon reunion with my hometown! What used to take near an hour in traffic, became 15 minutes--tops! The rail line zipped me along a narrow strip of track between residents, businesses, beside miles of concrete conduit, housing projects, over bustling boulevards, and through underground tunnels that opened again at the other end in the old city. Trains and cars share the same street like Dallas trolley days of old. Riding it was comfortable and easy on-off; trains run in and out of downtown about every quarter-hour. All you need remember was the "color" of your ride line. Definitely, the DART train made my trip downtown a pleasure...then, just an imagined dream of a plan some 37 years ago.