Exit 3 on the N.J. Turnpike is marked "Camden /
Philadelphia." It should also be marked "Rest Area"
because not 1/2 mile from the interchange is a pleasant
alternative to the numerous service plazas along the
highway's 100 mile or so extent. At the marked locations,
there are large, spacious rest rooms which occasionally are
clean. There is a Roy Rogers. Try going there at 11 PM on
a weeknight. You will pay close to $10 for a soggy
hamburger, cold, cardboard french fries, and a
serve-yourself-all-the-free-refils-you-want soda. The
former items have sat under a heating lamp for perhaps an
hour. You select your pre-wrapped food items cafeteria
style and place them on a brown plastic tray, and carry
them to the register. As they are rung up, you remember
hearing that the average American only uses 5% of their
brainpower or something like that. The Roy Rogers clerk
certainly must be a negative weight on that average as is
everyone else working in this s#&t hole! You take one bite
of your food and throw it away.
You should have gotten off at exit 3.
Neon flames flicker above the sign which is just out of
sight of the turnpike. The Club Diner has been around in
one form or another for the better part of forever (since
1946 to be exact). The present structure has been there
since the early sixties. It's space-age on the outside,
colonial on the inside. You can picture it when it opened.
Local businessmen with their ultra-thin ties puffing on
cigarettes. Dining in harmony with the Beatniks sipping
coffee. You dig!
For the $10 you spent at the service plaza, you could have
had a complete dinner with two vegetables, soup salad,
dinner roll and corn muffin, freshly prepared by someone
who cares.
Continue heading West on the Black Horse Pike for another
five miles and you will come to the slightly older Elgin
Diner Restaurant, a slightly older Kullman with more
stainless and more neon. That should be the subject of
another review. Straddled by these two diner is a corridor
which has seen better days though for those who are
interested, it still contains quite a few examples of the
architecture of the period: Zig Zag Modern and angular
structures with big picture windows and recessed lighting.
George Jetson would be pleased.
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