comments

1. Cindy Scroggins on March 12th, 2010 at 4:09 pm

   Oh! I want to eat there!

   Phil, do you remember what you ate at these diners you are sharing with us? I love to hear about food, especially as served in small town restaurants.

2. Phil Bebbington on March 12th, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   Cindy, this place looked as if it had been closed a couple of years – it had beautifully sticky carpet!

3. Rick Neece on March 12th, 2010 at 6:22 pm

   I love this, Phil. Reminds me of my Aunt’s restaurant in Imboden, AR. Joy’s Dairy Drive In. When my uncle passed away, she sold it, found a new love and now farms on her “new” husband’s farm (livestock, I’m sure, v. field farmin’) someplace not too far from it. They’re in their seventies.

   How that happens sure is a thought to think, I think

4. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 8:18 am

   A stranger, passing through a seemingly normal small American town, stops for a cup of coffee and a roll — only to discover that he’s just entered — the Twilight Zone.

   Phil, I’ve come to accept that on Crete, people walk away from homes and businesses, leaving everything as it was on the day of departure. But in America?

   That is why I think this had to be the Twilight Zone. The owners left the place wide open — brimming not only with sugar dispensers and coffee filters but furniture and restaurant equipment? In the real America there’d have been wholesale vandalism and thievery.

5. Daryl Scroggins on March 13th, 2010 at 9:18 am

   Sheila–you know how the police set a nice car out on the street to lure car thieves? The thief breaks in, starts to drive away–and then the motor dies and the doors won’t open. Maybe Phil just barely got out of there.

6. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 9:34 am

   Wow. That would have been a whole different kind of Texas adventure.

7. Phil Bebbington on March 13th, 2010 at 9:38 am

   Rick, thank you for the memory.

   Sheila, it sure did feel like a Twilight Zone set. It was very creepy inside and seeing the cops drive up and down sure unnerved me.

   Daryl, I think you are right. I got out by the skin of my teeth – I have never taken six exposures so quickly. The last one was in the back room so I had no view out of the window. The exposure was nearly 2 minutes and not being able to see if the cops were back had me twitching a bit.

8. Cindy Scroggins on March 13th, 2010 at 9:46 am

   I misunderstood Phil’s English way of speaking English–I didn’t realize at first that the place was closed.

   Sheila, I think something strange is afoot here. Kind of like with the black penguin. As you suggested, there are no unlocked businesses in America, abandoned or no.

   Might Phil be a breaker and enterer? Might he have the ability to beam himself about at will?

   Is he really English, you think?

9. Daryl Scroggins on March 13th, 2010 at 9:54 am

   Like Billy Pilgrim, maybe…?

10. Amy Mabli on March 13th, 2010 at 10:15 am

    This is great. I think I would have been tempted to do a naked self-portrait in there, lying on the counter with a coffee cup in hand.

    I look forward to seeing more photos from your trip.

11. Phil Bebbington on March 13th, 2010 at 10:22 am

    Well, Amy, the place is still insecure and very close to you. It would make me very happy in a variety of ways as I am sure it would everyone else.

    Get to it!

12. Phil Bebbington on March 13th, 2010 at 10:23 am

    The bottom room was also very pink and had a mirrored wall that must have been 30′ long!

13. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 10:44 am

    We would all like that.

14. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Cindy, if Phil possessed the ability to beam himself about at will, there is no telling what he might do.

15. Phil Bebbington on March 13th, 2010 at 11:33 am

    I was under the impression that was one of the powers we would be given in 2000 – I am, though, still working on my own version of it.

16. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 11:37 am

    Rick: Imboden, Arkansas. Joy’s Dairy Drive In. What great names.

    A friend of mine has spoken to me of a small chain of pre-WW II luncheonettes owned by his grandfather (I believe). One of them was in Kansas City.

    Gotta come find the ruins — or at least the site.

17. Rick Neece on March 13th, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Do you recall the luncheonette’s name, Sheila?

18. Rick Neece on March 13th, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    In case you wonder, Imboden is pronounced “IM-bod’n.” (When I first saw the word in print I was thinking it would be “m’BOD’n,” wudn’. Now a little further west of Imboden, on Hwy 62 is Ravenden, AR (pronounced “RAven-DEE-un”). Then North a-there on… I don’t remember what road, but out of Ravenden, is RAven-DEE-un Sprangs.

19. Phil Bebbington on March 13th, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    Rick, in an ideal world I’d like to hear you say those words. Can you record and post here, please – failing that, I will call you!

20. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    Rick, I hate to say without checking, but I think it may have been Dunlap’s Snappy Sandwiches. Or something equally delightful.

21. Sheila Ryan on March 13th, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Loving it, Rick: IM-bod’n. So close to impotent. As opposed to m’BOD’n. So close to embolden.

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