Strangers on a Train

Can you stand one more anecdote on whether to talk to strangers on trains? More than a decade ago, on a train ride through Belgium, my parents and I struck up a conversation with an older woman from Rotterdam. She spoke beautiful English with a hint of a clipped British accent. After a lively chat, she rose for her stop and noted, “If I sit with you another hour, I’ll be speaking bloody American.”

ANNE RIFFENBURGH

South Pasadena