How and when did it all start?

Remember when pony tails, saddle shoes and poodle skirts were in vogue during the somnolent Eisenhower years?

Do you fondly and nostalgically recall malt shops with black-and-white checkered tile floors, pink and blue neon signs and lunch counters with stools you spun around on while nursing a root beer float?

If you do, return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, of roadside diners with Wurlitzer jukeboxes, and pink '57 T-Birds. Borrow your father's Rocket '88 Oldsmobile, head on down the highway and meet the gang at the Springfield Royal Diner. This popular, artifact-filled roadhouse serves true diner fare, meaning the food is fresh, hot, tasty, inexpensive, honestly prepared and served with a cheerful and sincere smile.

Everybody loves a diner. Why? It's comfortable, and it's affordable. It's unintimidating. It's accommodating. It's American. It's colorful. It's shiny and it's fun.

The diner is a definite part of American dining history. Credit for the diner concept is given to Walter Scott of Providence, RI In 1872, he began serving prepared food from a converted horse-drawn freight wagon. His nighttime lunch wagon served mill workers who could not find anything open. Then, as now, it was mobile because its customers weren't but, unlike today's motor-driven meal trucks, it wasn't all that mobile. If it found a good corner it preferred to remain there, eventually blocking up its wheels for good, and dishing out the good food.