SOME OF MY DINER MEMORABILIA
The pride of my collection of diner memorabilia; an actual Worcester Lunch Car clock. Any diner lover would kill to have one of these, though the Fodero clocks are more stylish. These are absolutely impossible to come by, as diner clocks either stay with the diner or are demolished with the diner.
There are no coincidences: I knew nothing of this clock's origin so like Alex Haley, I traced the roots of the clock. It came most recently from what was the Windsor Diner in Vermont, before it was demolished. There are diners in virtually every state in the nation but incredibly, prior to being located in Vermont, the diner was actually located in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where I went to college and where I met my wife.
If that wasn't coincidence enough, the "Windsor" was sold and shipped from Fitchburg to Vermont in 1954, when it was only 2 years old, to make way for a shiny new Fodero diner. The Fodero, sitting on Rte 12 in Fitchburg, became know as Ray's. In the 1970's Ray's, which had by then become a nightclub and had its chrome face painted black, was sold to make way for a self-serve car wash. Ray's was moved to a sheep farm outside of Fitchburg.
It was there that in 1994 I discovered the decaying diner and made an offer to the farmer to purchase it, which he accepted.
I purchased the clock through an internet auction in 2000 without knowing at first which diner it had come from. The seller did not get the price he wanted on the internet so I convinced him to call me and haggle with me over the phone. It was then tha seller was kind enough to furnish me with the information of its origin. In fact, because of my Fitchburg connection, he opted to sell it to me instead of other interested parties.
So by sheer chance, I purchased a clock and a diner which had been located on exactly the same piece of land in the town I went to college in and in which I met my wife.
There are no coincidences. I think we just often forget to notice or discover the patterns in our lives
While I continue to get diner stuff from family and friends every Christmas, I long ago stopped buying everything with "Diner" printed on it. I do, however, still tend to pick up a diner mug now and again, especially if I've eaten there and the logo is cool. This is just a portion of the mugs I have. And I don't even drink coffee all that much.
