[PRCo] Re: PAT's cuts

[Fred Schneider]

While most railfans are not geographically challenged, the one who sent me that Kenosha film strip that I forward to yins, John,

                                                        admitted that he had absolutely no clue where it was.   I told him about 35 miles south of Milwaukee and about 50 north of Chicago.   You start in Milwaukee, go through Racine, then Kenosha, then Zion, North Chicago and Evanston and so forth.   I figured I was talking Greek to him, so I forwarded a google map reference.

You see guys, he was from New York.   There was a great New Yorker magazine cover years ago that portrayed a the United State through the eyes of someone from Manhattan.   The map on the cover started at Avenue A, the Avenue B, 1st Ave., 2nd Ave.... and so forth to 10th Ave., then the Hudson River.  
Beyond the river was this large wasteland called New Jersey.   An arrow pointed to the left to a place called Miami Beach.   Another pointed over the hills to California.   So much for what New Yorkers know about the USA.

And if you ask a San Franciscan about his view of the world, it it extends only beyond the Oakland and Berkeley hills as far as gambling casinos at Reno.

Amazing isn't it, John (and the rest of you), how travel broadens us.   The older railfans generally grew up reading those monthly copies of the Official Guide.   My first copy contained the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.    I was ten.  It taught us where cities were.  

If you can ride the Philadelphia subways, then you can easily graduate to Washington or New York or BART.    Then if we wind up there, the London Tubes or the Paris Metro are not that much different.  Stylized maps are the same in any country.   With a few brain cells, we can figure out how to pay the fare and stay out the hands of the transit police.  You can even bull your way through the Cyrllic alphabet used in the St. Petersburg Metro in Russia.  Been there.   Done it.   

Your story about the S-1 telling the XO that you had already been let loose on Rotterdam was funny.   

My first escape was when I was told the only way to get off a MSTS vessel at Southampton was to buy a guided tour of London.   OK.   "But do I have to stay with the tour?"   Using the basic rule that "for those who understand, no explanation is needed and for those who do not, no explanation is possible," I didn't try to explain to the sergeant why.   I simply accepted his advice that I would be courts martialled if I failed to reappear on the train back to the ship at the end  of the day.   I told him not to worry if his count came up one short.   And when we arrived in London (Waterloo), I vanished into the crowds.    

You see, I had a buddy for whom I processed film when I was in high school.   He had been there in 1957 and 1958.   I knew that London Transport was running steam tank engines west of Rickmansworth on the Metropolitan line.   I figured sucking in sulphur fumes from one of those 64-year-old kettles in route to Chesham was more important than seeing the Tower Bridge or the facade of Buckingham Palace that day.   Besides, the landmarks are still there.  I've seen them several times.   After 18 trips to London, I could give the standard guided tour but today the only place I can see those tank engines is cold in the London Transport Museum.   I think I made the right choice in July 1959.      


On Dec 5, 2010, at 3:58 PM, John Swindler wrote:

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> Those on this list take it for granted that, since we know how to use public transit,  'everyone' must know how to use public transit.  But we are not the norm.
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> My transportation unit was sent to Rotterdam during Desert Storm, and early the second day, the XO lectured the unit members that they were not to roam about the city - something about getting lost.  The S-1 told him that the warning was too late - 'John was out riding the trams around the city last night.'  
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> But you are right - vast majority never saw anything of Holland other than the PX at a nearby air force base. A lot has to do with fear of the unknown.  I ended up putting together two articles for our unit newsletter - how to navigate - and pay fares - on the Rotterdam transit system and the same for the Dutch National Railway.  Also was the 'tour guide' on 4-5 occasions, including a trip thru Brussels to Luxemborg for a small group.  
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> Likewise, several Navy schools I attended in Oakland, Cal.  We were housed on Treasure Island, and most spend there time at the club bar.  But I didn't travel 3,000 miles not to figure out that an AC Transit bus would get me to San Francisco within a half hour after class.
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>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PAT's cuts
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 19:19:59 -0500
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> 
>> I don't think the U. S. military ever rode the civilian buses very much.   
>> 
>> Before I left the USA, I was detailed to a finance office at Fort Dix to type up payroll vouchers for servicemen returning from active duty in Germany.  I spent several days at that job to kill time before being sent up to Fort Hamilton to be put on the ship to got overseas.
>> 
>> What did I learn?   That we were paying most of the servicemen we discharged for the vacation time they could have taken in  Europe.   Perhaps 90% came home having taken absolutely none of their earned vacation time in Europe.    I think that suggested they walked to the nearest bar or NCO club to drink but didn't see any of the nation they were in which they were quartered for two years.   
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>> I also learned I didn't want to be like them and come home and be paid for leave I could have used to see Europe free of charge.   
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>> On Dec 4, 2010, at 6:43 PM, Joshua Dunfield wrote:
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>>> On 4 December 2010 23:38, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>> "K-town" used to have about 200,000 which was 100,000 American sericemen, dependents, retirees and 100,000 Germans.   After we started chopping, I felt rather sorry because they didn't have a congressman to run to.   It wasn't just the military.   One of their biggest factories was the GM engine plant for Opals.
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>>> It's 150,000 now if you include the 50,000 military folks, but I don't
>>> think they ride the buses very much.
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>>>> You work for GM?
>>> 
>>> No, for a German computer science research institute.
>>> 
>>> -j.
>>> 
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