Falling - excerpt #3

Rail travelers became an eccentric, gregarious group with a culture of their own. It was expected that if you rode the rails, you brought baked goods intended for those you were traveling to visit; and half of all you baked was to be shared with your train companions. Passengers who dared tune out their travel mates by putting on earbuds or burying their noses in books without first engaging in lively conversation were heckled playfully and relentlessly. Hobo chic became popular in mainstream fashion. And badges—souvenir pins indicating cities visited by train—made for a steady topic of discussion.