Remember the Old Tin Diner
Down by the 
railroad tracks?
It had the finest food in town,
That was a fact.

My parents would often take us there,
Just me and my brother, Lou,
And sometimes my Aunt and Grandma 
And my cousins would come too.

I can almost smell the biscuits,
And hear the smiling waitress say,
“How lovely to see you all again.
What would you like to order today?”

It was a place where many friends would meet
by chance and then would ask,
“May we join you?” “Yes, please do!”
And we'd sit and talk and laugh.

Then one sad day a lonely sign 
Was hung upon its door.
The soapy windows told us all
That this diner was no more.

No one seemed to want to save it,
No one seemed to care.
The train would pass right by this place,
Its silence wasn't fair.

Well, I grew up and moved away
As all my friends had done.
The diner was not on our minds
As our new lives had begun.

I visited home just recently
And I drove through my old home town.
Nothing ever stays the same,
But this town did truly drown.

Soapy windows everywhere,
A frown fixed on my face,
As I saw the site of the Old Tin Diner
There stood a “Fast-Food Place.”


 

Remember the old “Fast-Food Place”
Down by the railroad tracks?
It had the finest food in town,
That was a fact.

It's a sad, true story that I tell,
But it won't be left behind,
As the “Old Tin Diner” shall safely stay
In the scrapbook of my mind.

Susan Marcus Rauch
Far Rockaway High School - Class of 1969

This poem is dedicated to the State Diner, which 
was located by the Far Rockaway Train Station 
in Far Rockaway, New York, my hometown.


 


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