On Friday, August 2, at 9:35 a.m., a woman in a brown hat with a small brim boarded AMTRAK train # 648 in Lancaster PA on a busy Friday morning.  High season for summer tourism.. She, Ruth, was visiting relatives in Bridgewater, CT, and felt fortunate — but a little scared of the unknown; she seldom traveled — to have a ticket for the entire trip. Because the transfer from the Keystone line to the New England line allowed only 22 minutes, Ruth was cautious. She – and I – had decided to wait more than an hour in PHL instead of risking the close connection.  Ruth had planned this trip for some time and her luggage was complicated by hospitality gifts she had carefully assembled in anticipation of this reunion.
She complimented me on the tidy collection of my luggage. I assured her that my big suitcase was traveling elsehow, giving me a svelte look I did not deserve. Nonetheless, we bonded and later, we sat in aisle seats across from each other, in the Quiet Car.
To my surprise at seeing a new piece of equipment,  when Keystone #648 stopped in Lancaster an AMTRAK employee, a woman, got off the train and rolled out a bright yellow ramp and helped Ruth to board easily with all of her luggage.  Ruth had one large blue suitcase plus a black, wire, vertical, cagelike, rolling cart, very festive with a bushy, leafy tree waving up top.  A large and colorful bouquet of cut flowers marked the center.  And, anchoring the bottom, a very large watermelon.  Her hospitality gifts.
Nearing Downingtown the train had picked up full speed.
Suddenly, a white-shirted, tall conductor appeared in the aisle, just short of our seats,
“Is that your tree,” said he.
“Yes,” said Ruth, surprised.
“Well, that tree has to get off the train. They are getting very strict about those rules,” he said.
He turned and he left, she got up to follow him and said, “ Please leave the pot. I will need that later.”
Shortly, she returned to her seat and the drama unfolded as she related the stages :
“That was a peach tree that I grew from a start,” she said.  “I am very upset.
“He just opened the door and threw it out.”
She sat back for a few minutes.   
Then she turned to me and said, “I’m very upset about my tree.  But why did he have to throw away the flowers. They were very expensive.”

By the time we reached Philadelphia, I had researched the AMTRAK rules.  Never try to take a tree on a train.  Cut flowers are not named.
In 30th Street Station, my ire sent me around to stop all white-shirted AMTRAK male employees to ask them how to report this act of violence.
“ Really,” said one of several men standing in a group, “ I would have let that go.”   
They sent me to Customer Service  ( which is air-conditioned, you may wish to know).
These women verified that we had entrained at 9:35 but gave me the USA-RAIL  phone number for entering a protest that was mostly a question defining the rules..
For that, I am still waiting for a call back.
For Ruth, she said, “I am way too upset to do anything about it. it is gone.”
and so, on she went   with only one large watermelon for a hospitality gift.