While Amish don't own cars, they have no problem using modern technology when needed. It would be just a bit inefficient to travel cross country in a horse and buggy. 
am I the only one bothered by pajamas in dining car?
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Also, not everyone in a hat/bonnet is Amish. Some are Mennonites:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/amish-who/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/amish-who/
jis
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Someone wearing a "turbine" should be quite a sight to behold. Maybe they could help power the train along. LOL!
Cho Cho Charlie
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MattW
Conductor
From a tour I took near Lancaster, PA a few years ago, it isn't so much the technology as much as it is the connection to the rest of society. Speaking from a very broad and probably overly general perspective, electricity from the grid is not allowed, but electricity from a generator would be. As for cars, I don't know, I can't remember what they said to that, but it was a fascinating, and much deeper perspective than simply the "no technology" stereotype.
Yea, but New York State would just botch the rebuild and send them to rust in a yard for years and years. *runs FAR away very quickly*
Come on folks we've all seen the people of Wal-Mart. Some people have no pride. Remember the old song sung to the tune of Humaresque - Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets when the train is in the station, darling I love you. When I was a kid I loved seeing the tracks when I flushed
Devil's Advocate
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Talking to the Amish is easy and fun. Mennonites too. If anything it's the Suburbanites you should consider avoiding.
greatcats
Engineer
Kauai John- when I used to work for Erie Lackawanna, the old MU electric had very rudimentary and usually grubby toilets that were not flush, literally outhouses on rails. At speed it was said the air currents were like peeing into a hurricane. I distinctly recall getting spots on my glasses that way. ( Is this being censored? )
greatcats
Engineer
Devil's Adv. - I agree about the Amish on the trains. In 2014 I was on eastbound 6 from Utah into Colorado. Two young Amish men, Ray and Erwin, were on a western tour of the U. S. From either Indiana or Michigan. They had maps and guidebooks in front of them and we're having a fabulous time. They were farm boys who worked in construction. I had a delightful time with them and invited them to my home if they ever come to Flagstaff.
BCL
Engineer
Never done it myself. Seen plenty of "plain people". Saw a young girl walking through the coach car on the CS. Some fundamentalist Mormon sects dress similarly - at least the women (no bonnets though).
Still - I remember a radio segment where a reporter attended an Amish tool fair. They were selling technologies that minimized direct use of grid electricity. A lot of it was air powered, even though the pressurized air tanks had to be filled by someone else and delivered. The whole idea is filled with a lot of contradictions. As long as they can pass the buck, they can use power that indie fly comes from a power grid. They tried interviewing Amish customers and sellers, but almost nobody was willing to talk, except one. He was joking that unlike the other Amish there, it was hard to get him to shut up.
The use of technology seems to be individual to the individual community. It's not like a centralized bureaucracy. Some orders use tractors, although some are modified with metal wheels instead of tires. Some Amish have taken jobs that require the use of computers, especially with fewer jobs on the farm but still traditionally large families.
I ate dinner with a couple on the Cardinal and the Mrs was a insurance rep who dealt with a lot of Amish and told me they own cars,just don't drive them their self.
Would like to add the Sikhs are the guys who wear the Turban. I see them around and they are kind of stylish looking. I think they feel the Turban is proper dinner wear.
Would like to add the Sikhs are the guys who wear the Turban. I see them around and they are kind of stylish looking. I think they feel the Turban is proper dinner wear.
tricia
Conductor
My understanding is that Amish communities make explicit, intentional decisions about whether specific technologies are or are not good for their community and their way of life. They're not so much anti-technology (consider, for example, the elegant and elaborate horse-powered equipment they've developed) as proactive about deciding whether a specific technology takes them in a direction they do, or do not, want to go.
We're kind of off-topic here, though. I too have enjoyed talking with Amish families on trains, and have never seen any Amish wearing PJs in the dining car, with or without a chihuahua companion.
AFS1970
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Not so much about the dining car, but on a recent overnight trip in business class, I finally gave in and wore sweatpants as I was going to spend much of the trip asleep. I did not like it one bit and my wife says I commented on it several times. It just did not feel right to be outdoors in what I normally consider indoor pants. I did make a couple of brief visits to the cafe car, but only for things to be brought back to my seat with me. I can not imagine wearing sweat pants, let alone pajamas to the dining car.
ToniCounter
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just imagine that you are a celebrity and you'll be fine.... they wear sweatpants everywhere, no?
Metra Electric Rider
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Thanks Sarah, I'm picturing furries now..... That would be a scary, Krofftian, train ride.
There is a surprising variety of standards among American subgroups on "proper breakfast attire" even at home. One of my friends wife was appalled when their houseguests showed up to breakfast in pajamas - that was a no-no in her upbringing, you got dressed before breakfast, even with no company (I'll just say it reinforced her stereotypes about "white folk" being slobs).
A former coworker, a long time Eastern employee recounted the non-rev standard for Eastern, you had to be dressed for first class, i.e. coat and tie for gentlemen, dress for ladies. In San Juan you'd see the little girls in communion dresses waiting with their families vs the tourists in tropical attire. This was back in the era of dress for travel, ties for kids (we never flew, mom didn't like it, and I never owned a tie until I was an adult).
But more recently, in Hong Kong, a friend on a press trip was at a super posh hotel (the Shangri-La iirc) witnessed an Australian woman who showed up to breakfast in the hotel restaurant in the hotel supplied slippers and robe and was unceremoniously dispatched back to her room for proper attire.
I wouldn't mind sitting with a furry, as long as they were a nice person. To me, it's more about the person than what they're wearing. And if it were a cool costume, I'd be sure to let them know.
I definitely agree that pajamas are too casual for the dining car, but since it's not hurting me or affecting my life in any way, c'est la vie. There are just so many more important things to worry about and be bothered about, especially since breakfast is only one half-hour of my life. In the grand scheme of things, it just doesn't matter.
I would actually be pretty stoked if someone showed up in a Cookie Monster costume. I'd even ask if I could have a picture. I promise to post the picture if that ever happens.
The Journalist
Lead Service Attendant
I'd absolutely wear pajamas in the diner at breakfast. Other meals, probably not, but if someone else was, at most I might give them a vague glance, go "huh," and move on. Reading some of the responses of this thread, I've probably irritated some people with my air and train travel ensembles, which tend to include sweatpants and easily removed shoes.
Manny T
OBS Chief
Sorry if I'm slow on the uptake. I don't understand the bifurcation--pajamas at breakfast OK, pajamas at lunch or dinner probably not OK.
If I'm going to the diner for breakfast, I get up 15 minutes before I want to eat, wash, shave, change out of my pajamas and DRESS appropriately, and head for the diner.
It can be done this way, I assure you. No need to wander in as if you just woke up.
If I'm going to the diner for breakfast, I get up 15 minutes before I want to eat, wash, shave, change out of my pajamas and DRESS appropriately, and head for the diner.
It can be done this way, I assure you. No need to wander in as if you just woke up.
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As for dress code; we can discuss rights and then arrive at the conclusion that anything goes but if you look at old videos in the golden days of rail travel , men, women and children were all well dressed. Men in suits and women in dresses. People looked like ladies and gentlemen not like animals. We often go to dinner at restaurants that maintain a dress code and it is comforting and refreshing to be well dressed and to sit among people who are well dressed. The way you dress is a measure of who you are and illustrates your pride and self esteem or lack of it.. Dress elegant and you are respected, dress like a scrub and.................
Cho Cho Charlie
Engineer
If you look at old pictures of baseball stadiums, you'll see men dressed in button down shirts, ties, and sport coats. All while sitting on open bleachers under the blazing afternoon sun.
Today, that would illustrate a mental condition. Personally, I wouldn't dress like that for a baseball game, even sitting in our air conditioned suite.
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My mother can remember the days when she wore a dress and hose to travel on a plane and says if she had to do that today, she'd never travel. I agree; if I had to wear a dress and hose I'd never travel either. :lol:
And fedoras too. No way would I dress up like that today to go to a baseball game. The Seattle Mariners are the closest team to where I live and I'd go to Seattle if I went anywhere to see a game. It's a lock that every time I see the Mariners play they lose. I want to be comfortable watching them lose. :lol:
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