[PRCo] Re: Courtesy__In__London__UK__Euro--Land

[Fred Schneider]

I think there is a point missing in the thread.   There is a common  
willingness to help other people in need almost anywhere in the  
world.   There is also a common curiosity about strangers.   To  
experience the courtesy and the curiosity, you need to be known, and  
the best way to be known is to travel as a pair and look like you  
could use some help.   Nothing works any better than discussing the  
menu options in a strange language or accent while sitting at a table  
for two in a crowded restaurant.    The most extreme courtesy I can  
remember was a couple in Brig, Switzerland, at the next table,  
inviting us to dinner at their home the next day.   Then there are  
Bubbles and Lew who own the B&B in Crich, England ... their picture  
rests in a cherished place on our bookcase in the family room.   I  
won't even call when I go back these days because she will go out and  
shop just for things she knows I like to eat.

  I have a vision of my wife standing behind the bar in a pub /  
restaurant in Salisbury, England teaching three university age  
bartenders how to make a Manhattan.

And then there's Susie König, whose family owns one of those small  
German ten room hotels.   This one is in Kehl, across the Rhein from  
Strasbourg, France.   The last time I was there Susie looked at me  
coming through the front door and said, "I remember you.   You were  
here with that man from Pittsburgh [Ed Lybarger] when they started  
running the trams in Strasbourg."

nd the vicar from St. Mary's Church in Crich who remembers my name.

  I recall a National Park Service docent at Plains, Georgia in  
January who remarked that Jimmy Carter was the most visible of all  
the ex Presidents of the United States and that if we wanted to meet  
him, he was scheduled to have the Sunday school class this coming  
Sunday at the Plains Baptist Church ... just show up and you can chat  
with him like everyone else in town.   I rather wish I'd stuck around.

And the French are so ugly aren't they.   We had to rename French  
fries to freedom fries.   I remember having had dinner one night in a  
truck stop in the Loire valley in France.   I was paying the bill and  
I heard my wife chatting away behind me.   I turned.   She was  
trading addresses with the wife of the owner of the restaurant.     
I've had at least four, maybe five wonderful vacations in that  
terrible country.

How about a chap I met on e-mail when I was looking for penetration  
rates for German Railways.   Ed knows Christof.   Every time I go to  
Germany we spend time together.   Now I'm trying to figure out how to  
get back from Alaska in time to be here for his honeymoon.

But locals can be nice too.  There were a bunch of guys I knew who  
drove bus here in Lancaster that were very cordial ... Art Rhinier,  
(he was the last Rocky Springs motorman and drove Lititz regularly  
afterwards), Ezzie Strubel (they had to teach that man how to tell  
time because he came from a farm where all he had to know was you  
milked the cows when they came in), Jerry Hershour (the union  
steward).   They were all friendly, and local.   And they knew who  
their regulars were.

On Apr 16, 2006, at 6:13 PM, Holland Electric Rwy. Op. H.E.R.O. --  
Import SPTC 1.48 Models // James B. Holland wrote:

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Re: NOT IN SERVICE SIGNS
> Date: 	Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:47:32 EDT
> From: 	metroman..... at aol.com
>
> 	
>
> 	
>
>
>
> Dick
>
> The "Sorry" preface to "Not in Service" is the only courtesy you will
> experience in your average journey by London bus!
>
> Keith White
> West Sussex
> UK
>
>