(erielack) Re: Dining Car Experiences

["Rusty Recordon" <"recordor_@_panetwork.com">]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Erielack Digest <"erielack-owner_@_internexus.net">
To: "erielack-digest_@_internexus.net" <erielack-digest@internexus.net>
Date: Thursday, December 02, 1999 5:00 AM
Subject: Erielack Digest V2 #529


>
>Erielack Digest       Thursday, December 2 1999       Volume 02 : Number
529
>
>
>
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Till the completion of Route 17 Quickway between NYC (via Thruway) to
Binghamton, NY, (approximately 1959 was our last trip) my family always rode
the Phoebe Snow from Hoboken to Owego, NY to visit my grandparents for
Easter vacation. This was mainly due to some interesting spring-storm
experiences on old 17.  As a 6-12 year old train nut (never heard the word
railfan in those days) this trip was almost as important as Christmas, and
lunch in the diner was the ultimate experience.

In those days people still dressed to travel.  My father and I wore tie and
jackets, mother and sister in dresses.  When lunch was called by the porter
we would proceed to the diner.  I particularly enjoyed crossing from car to
car.  In the vestibules you could hear the throbbing sound of those F-3s or
E-8s and the click of the rail joints, feel the cold, and smell the steam
from leaks in the heating lines.

In the diner you were seated by the steward.  As we were always 4 we always
had our own table.  The settings were gorgeous.  Heavy silver plate and
heavy railroad china, snow white heavy tablecloths and napkins, and flowers
were heady to a kid used to eating off plastic plasticware and place mats
except at holidays.  We would fill out our little paper order slips and
await our food as we watched the Poconos roll by.  I always ordered a cup of
tomato soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, a coke (a treat in those days) and
vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The soup is remembered as the thickest and richest I ever had, certainly
compared to the Cambells that was the regular fare at home.  The grilled
cheese was exquisite (I am still a connesiuer of the perfect grill cheese),
toasted as only a professional grill can do it, with a most uniquely
flavored American cheese.  Mom never duplicated it.  You couldn't get
vanilla ice cream like that at the supermarket either. The soup and ice
cream were served in silver plate demi-bowls as I remember, and the sandwich
on Lackawanna china.  Dad almost always had a freshly sliced roast beef
sandwich, and mom the Club sandwich, which I remember wondering how you
could eat a sandwich that thick.  My sister was 2-8 years during this period
and I really don't remember what she had other than ice cream.

No memory of the cost, wasn't my department in those days.  I do know that
on my father's state college professor's salary, eating in the diner was
considered a luxury by the folks.  When we drove we usually packed lunch,
though we would occaisionally stop at the Star Restaurant in Hancock, NY
(big attraction: you could see the Erie mainline from the front booths and
there were frequently pushers waiting to go over the hill into Susquehanna,
PA).

Travelling was never quite as elegant again.  Though I rode the Phobe a
couple of times by myself during my high school years, '61-'65, when the
members of the family had 3 different spring vacations, I never patronized
the diner under E-L.  Still wore the tie and jacket, but teenage economics
kept me packing a sandwich.  I didn't ride a meal-serving airliner until
1969 and well, airline food at your seat was better than a warm bologna and
cheese sandwich, but it sure wasn't the Phobe Snow.  The closest I have ever
come was lunch on the old Canadian Pacific (ViaRail then) between Edmonton
and Jasper in 1977.

Rusty Recordon


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