1920’s Train and Travel Etiquette

  

Nancy and Peter Knew That Good Manners Mark the Well Bred Person

Nancy and Peter were returning from their short stay in Florida. On the train Nancy watched folks and decided that many of them were good travelers but that a few needed some lessons in train and travel etiquette. For instance, there was the woman who came into the dining car without a hat. It is true that the train was her home for the time being, but it was a home in the sense that a hotel is a home—just temporarily, and as such it becomes a place in which a person maintains certain formalities. Then there was the woman who traveled with much jewelry and wore it all. The train is no place to shine like the morning star, nor is it the place where one’s dressiest clothes are worn. No longer do women feel correctly dressed for traveling only when they are in blue serge, but the well bred woman is still inconscpicuous in her clothes when she travels.   

Another little habit of many travellers which annoyed Nancy was the conversational one. Invariably her seat was close beside two people who felt compelled to tell each other the life history of themselves, their families even unto the uttermost relationship. Confidences which should never be given to one’s dearest friend seem to fall from the lips of some travellers into the ears of veriest strangers. Nancy and Peter were courteous in their greetings to folks on the train, they gave a friendly greeting, passed the time of day and then stopped. Books, magazines, papers were always close at hand and were used to stop many attempts at wearisome and long drawn out conversations. – “Nancy Page” for the San Pedro Pilot, 1929

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Vacation Etiquette for Americans

This turtle doesn’t need this bag, as he certainly won’t be doing any seaside shopping. “Multiply your left-behind paper plates and cups, soft drink bottles, etc., by the hundreds who will use that picnic area in a given week and you see why some areas look like one big garbage heap. Crews eventually will pick up after you, but you’re not thinking of the others who want to enjoy the outdoors, nor of the multi-million dollars of taxpayers’ money spent on cleanup alone.”  –Photo source Canadian Wildlife Federation

How Are Your Travel Manners? 

Check Yourself

A tourist is judged by his travel manners and the better they are the better the impression made on strangers at home and abroad. The better also you will enjoy your trip if you exercise the rules of courtesy. Good manners add to good service you get too from the motels, hotels, roadside eating places, airlines, trains and buses. Those catering to the vacationer if pinned down could give you a list of gripes that long for correction. They are tolerant, because they are seeking the tourist dollar. But, from talking to various persons in the travel industry, we have compiled –

“Pauley’s Easy Guide for Testing Your Vacation Etiquette”

• Do you hog two seats in the bus, train or plane by deliberately placing your coat, purse or other paraphernalia on the second seat, hoping thereby to seal it off? 
• Do you on planes hang assorted cameras, coats or other accessories including flight bags in your area so that they overlap and create a hazard anyway discomfort for the person behind or in front of you? 
• Do you light a cigarette, pipe or cigar without asking whether smoking bothers the person sitting next to you? 
• Do you use the ash tray nearest you or prefer to lean over and use one of your neighbor, dusting ashes as you go?
• Do you march up to the reception desk of hotel or motel and elbow others aside who are in line ahead of you to register? If you've pushed your way past others a little more patient during a busy tourist season, you’ve just won a top award for crudeness. 
• Do you adapt, if the conditions are not as perfect as promised ? Some of the overseas countries are just getting into the swing of seeking you as guest for a holiday and the shower may not always work, the soap supply not be ample. But point out politely that flaw in the service. Creating a scene does not create a favorable impression of Americans. 
• In motor travel, especially in the United States, do you trash the roadside picnic areas as if litter did not hurt? Multiply your left-behind paper plates and cups, soft drink bottles, etc., by the hundreds who will use that picnic area in a given week and you see why some areas of the United States look like one big garbage heap. Crews eventually will pick up after you, but you’re not thinking of the others who want to enjoy the outdoors, nor of the multi-million dollars of taxpayers’ money spent on cleanup alone. 
• Do your driving manners show in reverse? Tail-gating or nudging out of your lane at a stop light for a quick getaway when the light turns green? These invite disaster. 
• Do you remember to say thank you to the filling station attendant, the policeman or anyone else who acts as a free guide? There are a dozen times a day the tourist has a chance to say “thank you,” and make traveling a treat instead of a trauma. – By Gay Pauley, Women’s Editor, (UPI) New York , 1963

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette — Salty but Polite

Food service on airplane flights used to be expected and plentiful, but those days are long gone for regular airline travelers. Nowadays, if you don't bring your own, you're likely to go without, unless you are in first-class. — "Some people will tell you to bring a cup of noodles or other instant soup aboard a flight and ask the flight attendant for boiling water during meal service. Although a mug of hot soup may sound enticing, it’s a bad idea to keep a cup of scalding liquid near your lap when turbulence could strike at any second. Plus, many prepackaged ramen cups have close to half of your daily recommendation of sodium, which certainly won’t help you fight jet bloat." —from SmarterTravel.com

An airplane manufacturer has just announced that all passenger machines will be equipped with regular dining rooms, so— That leaves it up to some etiquette expert to suggest something salty, but polite, for the passenger to say when the ship goes into a tail-spin during dinner and spills the soup in his lap. — Coronado Eagle and Journal, 1932

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Retro Travel Etiquette

When much luggage is necessary for a trip, part of it should be sent ahead by express or else shipped through in the baggage car.

When traveling by train one should take as little baggage as possible, for storage space is limited. The passenger who must have his numerous belongings piled on the platform, where they obstruct passage from car to car, is a nuisance. 

When much luggage is necessary for a trip, part of it should be sent ahead by express or else shipped through in the baggage car. On the ticket, a certain amount of pounds go free. In the latter case, however, it is important to know that baggage cannot be shipped on the passenger's ticket beyond the point of his descent, and there is often a wait while the freight car is unloaded and baggage sorted out. 

In a Pullman, large bags are usually placed on the platform by the porter, unless they fit under the seat. They should be locked, of course. A small bag may go to a seat, but not if it is likely to be in the way of a seat mate. At night such a bag should be small enough to fit in the hammock above the berth. In a roomette or compartment all hand baggage is stored by the porter in the allotted space. — Amy Vanderbilt, 1954

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia