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Former Teacher
"Chases" Diners
"I’ve been a lifelong collector," says Mario. "You know, stamps, coins, Depression glass, Long Island historical artifacts, that sort of thing. Then I saw an article about ‘Roadside’ magazine in the early 1990s. It was about diners by the side of the road. I sent for a copy of the magazine and started reading the article, and that got me thinking a small diner in Maspeth, Queens, where I grew up. It held all sorts of memories for me, so I got hooked on the concept of ‘collecting’ diners. "Now, my wife and I are listed as ‘Regional Correspondents’ for the magazine. Basically, this means that whenever my wife and I take a trip to visit our kids and grandkids, we research local diners, eat in them, and photograph them. My wife calls it ‘chasing diners’. This information as well as other articles about diners I come across, goes to ‘Roadside.’ Out of this activity, I’ve developed a cadre of super friends who constantly send me articles, photos, and other information about diners. I have given two talks on the subject, one to the Glen Cove Retired teachers group I belong to, and the other to the Locust Valley Retired teachers group my wife belongs to. "My writing, such as it is, for ‘Roadside’ is called a ‘Diner-Finder.’ It’s a map of the locale we've visited and a list of names and addresses of the diners we've visited in that locale. For example; Queens Diner-Finder; Brooklyn Diner-Finder; Staten Island Diner-Finder; The Bronx Diner-Finder. The editor then selects which diners he will actually print in the magazine. He stays away from diners built after 1965 and concentrates on what he calls Classic Diners; the ones built between 1900 and the 1960s. "When people ask me if this is a ‘retirement hobby,’ I laugh and give them an emphatic ‘no.’ I tell them that you never retire. You merely change interests, and that you should find what interests you and go for it. The other thing I tell people who ask me about how you get started is, ‘Be persistent. Don’t let anything stand between you and your goal, except of course, the needs of your family.’ "I keep active with my record-keeping. I'm rather well known in the Diner world. The annual conventions we "diner-holics" have, called Diner-Ramas, afford me the chance to meet with and compare notes with others like me. The last DR 2000 was recently held in Providence, RI -the birthplace of Diners. There, I met some new "diner-holics". We bus-tripped for two days to visit about 20 diners in the RI and southeastern MA areas. We heard talks from diner restoration experts, diner owners and others with the same interest as mine. "Now that I am regularly researching diners, I want to get a book on the subject published. I’ve put together a ‘Directory of Diners,’ which is already available in on-line form from www.1stbooks.com as a "virtual" book. It’s called Print on Demand. You log on, go to Travel, name the book, order it, and then download it to your hard drive, from which you can print the parts you want to save." Getting Started For other "diner-holics": A Directory of Diners by Mario Monti
Contact Mario Monti at: dinerguy@suscom.net Roadside Magazine American Diner Museum Home |
Copyright 2006 2Young2Retire.com, All Rights Reserved |
70-something Mario Monti
taught fifth
graders in Glen Cove, a pleasant suburb of old homes and tree-lined streets on the north
shore of Long Island. When he realized that he couldn’t keep up with active children
anymore, he retired, but because he loved to work, he didn’t stay away long.
