Tom's Diner

I love diners.
I love to eat in diners.
Diners are real places where real people, not just beautiful people, congregate to eat real food.
Diners are decidedly middle-aged but they don't mind that they are. They are not afraid to show a little wear and tear, an occasional torn stool at the counter, those jute boxes in the booths that are never operational. People could learn a lot from a diner. We should all be as accepting of ourselves.
Despite the advances of age, diners still take pride in themselves, behold their shiny chrome and bright neon.
Diner glassware is rugged and practical, like comfortable shoes. I love the thick, concave coffee mugs. They are the exact opposite of the wine glasses with the ridiculously thin stems that are used in pretentious restaurants.

A good diner has its history printed on its placemats.
Diners are places where real conversation happens. I recently overhead a conversation in Wareham's Mill Pond Diner that began with the words, "It's just a fact of life that..." No one sounds that sincere in a Burger King or The Olive Garden.
Diners are great places for children because they can always get a grilled cheese.
Real diners are created in a factory and then moved to their working locations. Diners can be moved to new locations and renamed many times because life is a journey.
Truly great diners serve breakfast all day because you never know where a person's at in his or her day and don't we all need a chance, every once and a while, to start over while we're in the middle of things?


song: Tom's Diner • artist: Suzanne Vega & D.N.A.