 Here are a few shots of "Diners" just in case in In regards to the "Lunch Wagon" series or maybe Eric must have these & more. I'm up North for a couple of weeks & I missed the service for Louisa Bisbini Weisz on Tuesday Chic  |
Friday, August 12, 2011
From Chic Silber #1
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6 comments:
NICE PHOTO CHIC - I just had Breakfast there last month a couple times at THE ROADSIDE DINER in Collingswood , N.J. on Rt. 33 -
That is One of the ORIGINAL Ole
"Chrome Diners"( Stainless Steel ) from the 1950's STILL Doing Well & bearing its Quaint Ole Atmousphier INSIDE & OUT -
How about that entranceway & that Pocket Door - OH & HOME COOKEN !
Richard Gutman's book "American Diner, Then and Now," is a great reference on the topic. There's also an Arcadia book on the Worcester cars by Gutman, and other references.
Some local, enterprising lunch wagon proprietors might have moved their outfit closer to the circus lot on show day to make a bit more money from the increased foot traffic. I don't recall any circus having a manufactured lunch wagon, such as one from Worcester. In the South, black people would set up snack stands offering local favorites. Show people reportedly abandoned the hearty cookhouse offerings to ingest those delicacies.
Among the earliest of the circus-owned snack wagons was the RBBB "A Sip and a Bite" of the early 1920s. It was replaced by a much larger snack wagon in just a few seasons, both visible in photos of the time [Mardo, Atwell, etc.]. RBBB had more vehicles and variants, some self-propelled, in later years. You can also find them on other later railroad outfits, offering both cold and hot food items.
Larger railroad shows had commissary wagons where people with the circus might buy candy bars or other sundries. These supplemented the "cottage industries" that some show people operated to keep their peers supplied with life's necessities and desires.
When we were with C&B in southern Texas, a few years back, there was a black couple serving breakfast from a trailer at the local fairgrounds and the food was really good. They made a good chunk of change, even with the low prices they charged.
Bob Kitto
Into the early 50's there was a railroad car diner, still on it's original wheels, in Beloir, WI.
Bob Kitto
IN NJ there are two towns spelled simular. Collingswood and Collingwood. The Diner
Chic Siber refers to is in Collingwood. Great Diner, Great NJ diner food.
John Baeder wrote and illustrated DINERS - Revised and Updated. He captured many in color, and some in nostalgic black and white, for a collection highly recommended for fans of the old roadside eateries. He autographed my copy when Dave Price told him of my great memories of stopping in many of them with Clyde Beatty sitting next to me.
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