Ah,
diners. Their service is usually less than ideal and
despite the claim in the matchbook below, the food is
not exactly what your cardiologist would have you eat.
Despite these shortcomings, most of us can't stay away
from these palaces of stainless steel. And its not just
a nostalgia thing. Those of us raised in regions with
long standing diner cultures, diners are a natural way
of life. I was raised on the west side of Baltimore
where the Double T Diner is legendary. Even in
small towns and rural areas, diners serve as the local
gathering place and are vital for the community. When
fellow Baltimorean Barry
Levinson made his landmark film Diner,
he shared the subculture of dinermania with the world.
With
their roots going back to horse drawn lunch wagons,
diners remain on the move. Quite often, they move to
new locations. Earl's is one such diner. A 1950's era
Fodero-built structure, Earl's was located at the Hare's
Corners crossroads west of New Castle, Delaware. After
a name change to the Viking Diner, I'm pretty
sure that Earl's was moved down the road a bit and is
now the Hollywood Diner (1213 North Dupont Highway/Route
13, Dover, Delaware, 302-734-7462). The diner building
used by the Hollywood is fairly new and not the structure
used by Earl's.
Ron
Saari's great photograph of the Hollywood Diner
from Diner
City is shown below.
|
1943 FSA photograph at Earl's Diner. (Courtesy
of the Library of Congress, LC-USW3-018254-D).
|
Earl's Diner was also the location for
a series of classic
photographs taken in February of 1943 by Farm Security
Administration photographer John
Vachon. Vachon spent a winter's night photographing
scenes at Earl's as part of his series on long haul
trucking. Although these photographs are blatantly staged,
they do provide a fabulous look back in time to when
diners were less glamorous.
More
about Route 40's diner culture.
