Not long after the breakup up of Conrail; I can recollect a conversation with a former NS account manager who referred to the “Juanita” shops in Altoona. Of course; it’s spelled Juniata and pronounced “joo-nee-atta.
In a similar vein and relevant to this topic only because it involved a railroad man; I had several Canadian Pacific people in Carlsbad, NM for a potash mine visit. While having dinner that evening; the waitress asked if we wanted dessert. One of the guys from Montreal said he’d like a piece of (and I’m spelling this phonetically) - peecan pie. The waitress looked at him and said “huh”? He repeated “a piece of peecan pie please”. She said “hold on” and came back with two other waitresses; asking him to repeat his order for their benefit. When he did; all three started laughing and our waitress told him “hon; around here it’s pronounced (again phoenetically) - peekahn.”
Curt
