Let's mention what transpired, and we'll see if your judging is still apropos:
On the Cardinal, going from LAF to CHI (3.5 hour journey estimated), the train was frozen in a Chicago freight yard for 8 hours. During this time, a senior citizen in the seat near me started whining and moaning about nothing, and his wife started heckling the already stressed and overworked amtrak conductors. After a discussion, it turned out that his wife was concerned because the guy was diabetic and needed protein, and the symptom of needing protein was him getting grumpy and cantankerous. 2 cars full of people are locked on a car just down the street from our destination, on a train without even a snack car! We're all perturbed, hungry, and uncomfortable, but we kept our composure.
Not only did we keep our composure, but he was offered various foodstuffs from passengers' own stashes. One passenger offered him a banana, and he had a hissy fit because he needed
protein instead of potassium. Not everyone knows the intricacies of diabetes, and the passenger who offered the banana was out of direct earshot of the guy and only offered the banana in response to hearing of the guy's plea through the conductor asking if anyone could help. The guy condemned the passenger and rambled about the passenger, clearly regarding the passenger as an idiot.
After some more incessant nagging, I thought the guy was in serious need of protein, so I proffered my pristine, unopened jar of peanut butter, and he made a face that a stereotypical 3 year old would make when offered spinach, and started
pouting about how he didn't like peanut butter, and his wife was once again left to try and cover for her husband's pathetic behavior by being apologetic.
If the guy needed protein so badly, whether or not a food is liked shouldn't matter. He was crying like he was dying, but apparently he was far from it. If you don't actually need it, just sit back and keep a respectable demeanor.
To further matters, he started harassing the conductor for an ambulance, something he clearly did not need. The conductor told him that the ambulance could not get into the freight yard, so the guy increased his harassment. 2 hours later, an ambulance managed to show up, but it charged 600 dollars to take him away, and then he started ranting about that. The guy, however, did board the ambulance, and no one within earshot of him was sad to see him go.
So then we got to Chicago and boarded the empire builder, where we were the first on a car and took the lower level coach seats that
we paid for.
Later on, a few families with little kids board. A few stops later, a bunch of senior citizens boarded. A few stops after the train left, a senior citizen woman boarded the train, and there were NO free seats on the lower level coach. "But I paid for this!", she exclaimed. So what happened? All the older people on the train tried to guilt me and my compadres to relinquish our seats, singling us out because we were younger. After the struggle we went through to acquire our seats in Chicago, and the fact that we were the
first people in the car, we were not relinquishing. The lounge car had no heat, and was packed with overbooked people as one car on the train was unusable. We were not about to go freeze ourselves off in a standing-room-only lounge car just because some sanctimonious senior citizens decided that we were an acceptable sacrifice for what they felt was just.
After a bit, several of the senior citizens left to give their seat up, after jeering us repeatedly failed to achieve their goals. The woman herself could not go upstairs because "asthma" prevented her from climbing them, but later in a conversation with a fellow passenger, she confided that she could climb them, and would, to avoid having to wait an additional day for a return train from her destination with available lower level coach seating.
Eventually the situation was resolved when a couple managed to upgrade to a sleeper, and they gave their seats to her. Once the woman got a seat, she proceeded to lament her tale of seating to one of her friends via cellphone, and she used the conversation to indirectly attack my me and my compadres, as well as the families with children in the car. She said that she did not believe that "these boys here" had tickets to ride in lower level coach, and flagrantly called us liars, at which point I had to intervene with my personal protest. Later, with another old woman passenger, she tried to resume the same conversation, adding in that the lower level coach should not have children in it, and was supposed to be for "senior citizens with problems getting around" (which she did not even qualify for). Even the parents of the children were condemned, as eventually the older citizens in the car, one of whom was a reverend, agreed with her opinion that we did not belong. No one told us or Amtrak that the lower level coach was supposed to be an exclusive geriatrics club.
Later, when I found my outlet and plugged in my powerstrip, the same people who had been trying to jeer and guilt trip us for over a day came to me with requests to plug in their phones. Out of the goodness of my heart, I obliged them. I even held the reverend's tracphone while it charged for a good 45 minutes (while my phone recharged). After this event, the geriatrics committee in the car that had condemned us to the most awful circle of hell for the entire train ride previously decided to hail us as returning champions, giving us leftover food and drink and their conversation, as if nothing had transpired previously. Maybe they themselves felt guilty, but their attempts at reconciliation were so shallow that even a deaf man could hear the insincerity in their voices. As we disembarked from the train in Spokane, they must have thought I was out of earshot as they formed a caucus and condemned me and my compadres once again. Fickle, aloof, and holier than thou. That still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Sadly, I have never encountered any senior citizens acting this immaturely before. My own grandparents and all the other senior citizens that I have met would condemn the childish behavior. Asthma keeping one from climbing a sissy little flight of stairs? Ha! I know elderly with artificial knees and required canes to walk who take the stairs as a challenge, and condemn the handicap pass as a blight of a nation of sissies. I try to respect the elderly, but when they act like children, insult me blatantly, and most importantly call me a liar, that becomes incredibly challenging. I did not respond to any of them with an elevated voice or in anger, and only by divine providence was able to restrain from all forms of retaliation. Punished for being considerate, for going out of my way to assist, and for using the services that I paid for? If you still think that there was misbehavior on my part, I am afraid that you cannot see past your own bias, for there was no misbehavior.
I am glad to see that Ageism is alive and true here. "Ageism" is a term created by the Politically Correctness movement, i.e. BS, and I confirm here that I put no stock in it. However, I like to note its prevalence, as I find it Most Interesting that the older members of society, who are directly responsible for the sad state of affairs in America today condemn the youth, who have the power to right the wrongs of their predecessors, and are sad victims of the follies of those who came before us. This sad state of affairs always brings forth a melancholic smile
Finally, I must address the comment made by one esteemed RRrich. While there were many other senior citizens on the train, whom were neutral or downright friendly, they did not ever make the claim that they used a Senior Citizen discount. The ones I mentioned in my sad recount of events
blatantly used their senior citizen discount in their arguments as justification for their position, and as some pass to elitism. "I am a senior citizen, and as such I purchased a lower level coach seat with my discount, and I was denied my seat by children and boys, neither of who [sic] should have been in here as the lower level is for senior citizens with problems getting around."
So yes, anyone who I know for a fact boarded with a senior citizen discount acted badly.
As for the outlets, no one informed us that the Empire Builder did not sport them. I brought with me a miniature library, and was set with enough non-electrical entertainment to last me the journey and then some, but not having an outlet came as a shock from every other train that I have ridden having 2 outlets per seat row. For the way back though, I have some things that will not work too well sans power, so having a plug-in would be nice.
