(erielack) Dining Car Experiences

["MikeG0112_@_aol.com"]

The one and only time I ever ate in an EL diner was during a grammer school 
field trip when I was in the second grade and the class rode what we were 
told was the Pheobe Snow (it was actually the "Erie-Lackawanna Limited" at 
that time of May 1963, but I didn't figure that out until years later) 
between Hoboken and East Stroudsburg. We rode a chartered bus from Saddle 
Brook,NJ to Paterson,NJ to get on a commuter train to Hoboken where we got on 
the Erie Lackawanna Lmt.  Our teacher took our lunch orders about 2 weeks 
before the trip and sent them in to the railroad ahead of time. We had a 
choice of a ham sandwich or a cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. I had 
cheese. 
I can remember looking out the right side diner window, past the flower in 
the vase, as we pulled into a big station (later to be identified as Dover). 
We obviously were given an early seating (11:22 by the timetable) to 1) get 
us fed before Stroudsburg and 2) get us out of there before the real patrons 
were called. We were given a tour of the train, the only part of which I 
remember was looking out the back of the Tavern Lounge at the scenery rapidly 
receding in the distance. I remember standing on the platform at E. 
Stroudsburg and watching the Tavern Lounge disappear around the curve in the 
distance and waiting a very long time (to an 8 year old) before an eastbound 
train arrived to pick us up. It was actually only about a half hour before 
the  "Pocono Express" showed up at 12:48PM (I do have a timetable open in 
from of me. I had no idea what time it was). Back in Hoboken, we all ran 
screaming down the platform on tracks 1 or 2 for the engineer of our commuter 
train back to Paterson to wait and not leave without us. He wasn't going 
anywhere, and smiled down at us from his cab seat as we climbed into the 
first car. 
I remember watching that yellow Erie diamond and wings rocking back and forth 
thru the open front door all the way back.

This teacher, Mrs. Korte had a lot of class. We "studied" several different 
forms of transportation that year including trains and ships. During our ship 
lessons, we were taken to Hoboken by bus, rode the EL ferry over to New York 
and were given a tour of a passenger ship, S.S. Atlantic, which was docked in 
New York at the time. I wonder if she had any idea what an affect this was 
all having on me?

Mike Galesi
ELHS #145



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