Bro, sit down and hold tight, because what I found out this morning from the guys at Fane made me tear up. After 53 years of rattling through Bucharest, those old Tatra trams are going into retirement. Yes, bro, the last festive runs are on July 11-12 and July 18-19. Six Tatras are still running: one red solo, one white solo, two red coupled, and two white coupled. Those are the only ones still working. If they don't put them in a museum, this is your last chance to ride them. And just like that, we lose another piece of our childhood.

Now, don't think this story is just about trams. It's about how we, Romanians, throw them away, while others modernize them. Look at Prague, for example, they still use Tatra T3s, but they rebuilt them with low floors for strollers and disabled people. 78 of these trams run in the Czech capital. And me, who used to ride the Tatra on line 26 when I was little, now I watch them rust on the tracks. Mioara says I'm sentimental, but she never got to stand on the outside step like 40 years ago, as George B. says on Facebook. Oh man, what times!

And now, check this out. Four days ago, the Bucharest City Hall announced they're getting 100 trolleybuses and 79 new trams with EU funds. They'll have AC, screens, cameras, USB ports. Great, right? But what do I do with my memories? I look at Mioara and say: 'See, this is how we screw ourselves with new stuff, while the Prague folks ride around in modernized Tatras.' She shakes her head and says: 'You're an idiot, you never caught the coupled tram 13.'

The reactions on Facebook are hilarious. Gabriela S. says: 'We grew old together...' Virgil M., who worked on Tatras, remembered lines 3 and 13. And Viorica Petrache jumped in: 'They were better than these second-hand junk brought from other countries.' And she's right, bro! Because we take all kinds of second-hand crap, while those in Prague preserve their history. That's how we roll: we throw away, get something else, and still cry that we have no money.

The bottom line? If you're in Bucharest on the weekend of July 11-12 or 18-19, go catch a Tatra. Because after that, you'll only have stories. And maybe, just maybe, they'll put them in a museum. But, as it is with us, they'll probably melt them down and make spike drums. Alright, I'm off to explain to Brian why people cry when they see an old tram.