Now here’s a holiday menu; the Northern Pacific should have taken note. “Season’s Greetings” emblazoned on the cover with a beautiful winter scene of a Hudson Valley house that happens to have been the home of Washington Irving puts diners in a holiday spirit without excluding any Jewish or other non-Christian passengers. The back cover continues the theme with an excerpt from a Christmas letter from Irving to his niece, who was living in the house while Irving was acting as United States’ minister to Spain.
Click image to download a 934-KB PDF of this menu.
The menu inside isn’t particularly Christmasy, but like the NP menu does offer roast turkey with cranberry sauce and candied yams. The price in 1950 was $2.50, which is $27 in today’s dollars — a little less than NP’s 1967 price, but New York Central’s menu included dessert. What kind of a Scrooge was running NP in 1967 that they excluded dessert from a holiday dinner?
Thank you for making my Christmas morning. I grew up in Indianapolis and was 10 months old when this menu appeared. later in life, I took the “Riley” countless times to Chicago. While a bit frayed in the later 1960’s, the dining car stayed on until Amtrak even as the roadbed deteriorated adding time to the schedule. Happy Holidays.
What kind of a Scrooge was running NP in 1967? That would be Lou Menk.