The 29 Diner's Lost Twin

When PawPaw (D.T. Glascock, aka "Bill") originally ordered the 29 Diner, he ordered two--one for his property in the City of Fairfax and one for his land in Arcola.  After the first diner arrived, the company in Pennslyvania who sold it to him unwisely tried to raise the price on the second diner.


Now, I never knew my PawPaw very well, but I heard many tales over the years, and he was well known for his temper and supreme ability to hold a grudge (and in his later years he was also known for driving around very slowly in a station wagon packed with junk and a mean dog).  He never allowed anyone to take advantage of him or try to force him into doing something he had no inclination of doing.

When the Pennsylvania diner dealer tried to raise the price on the second diner, PawPaw declined in his fiery manner.  Trying to backtrack, they offered him the original price, and finally less than the originally agreed price, but it was too late.

Thus, the second diner planned for Arcola never happened.


The Glascock Family has always owned the 29 Diner and its land.  It remains in the family to this day.

Beating the System

Johnny, Palm Springs 1965

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast at Silver Diner, Dad and I waited for Matt to get the car while Nana took Po to the bathroom. I don’t know how it came up, but as we sat on the bench in front of the restaurant he began a story…


“One year license plates would be black with white lettering, and the next they’d be white with black lettering.

Once, the state trooper came right to the house to take the tags off my car. Like the one in the garage at the beach…that one was ’63, but I painted ’64 right over it and it looked pretty good. I did such a good job, it fooled the police. They didn’t look too close though.

The ticket you got, when it was the one where you knew you would lose your license, that was when you went right to DMV, say you misplaced your license, and they’d give you a duplicate. After you went to court and they took your original license, you had the duplicate. They didn’t have computers back then.

Sonny [one of his friends] lost his license until he was 21 in Virginia, so he went to West Virginia and got one there and lost that. He was always racing and speeding.

My brother Frankie, he used to pull into the coffee shop all the cops used to go to [in Fairfax City] and he’d smoke his tires in the parking lot then race off.”

Frankie

Tommy, Dad's twin, in Japan.