Atlantica - 01.12.2006, Page 36

PARISa
because it was raining. When I’m tired I lie down
and it don’t matter where. Sometimes it’s in the
pahking lot.”
I ask Pete where he met these guys, with whom
he’s eaten breakfast more than 5,000 times. “Aw, I
just found these guys crawhlin’ down the street,”
he smirks, shifting in his stool.
“What do you do during the two-and-a-half
days the diner’s closed?” I ask no one in particu-
lar.
“We tailgate it,” Babson says, deadpan.
Becky Rand, 52, opened her eponymous diner
on Hobson’s Wharf in 1991 with USD 55,000 of
borrowed money and a prayer. “There was a need
for this,” Rand told me later. “You know, the guy
with the grease on his clothes and the fiberglass
in his hair needs a place to eat. Everyone wants to
eat a good meal. A homemade meal.”
At the time, her children were between the
ages of one and 12, and her husband had just
left her. She waited tables breakfast, lunch, and
dinner, and baked pies during her “free” time to
make ends meet. She had no health insurance
and slowly began to lose her house. “One sick
kid would wipe out my money for the week,”
Rand said. She has since put all of her children
but one through college. “You’ve gotta fake it ’til
you make it.”
Every one of her kids either works or has
worked at the diner. Rand’s dad comes in three
times a day – at night he mops the floor. Her three
sons, all lobstermen, catch the lobsters she serves
for dinner.
Rand’s hours? Usually 2:30 pm until 2:30 am.
Her office, the size of a janitorial closet, is
crammed to the ceiling with stuff, and there’s
no room on the desk to complete paperwork
for bills or payroll. Come midnight, she lays her
spreadsheets out on the front counter and gets
her work done.
Nowadays she’s usually out before the 4 am
boys roll in, but not always.
“There’s a buzz at 4 am,” Becky says. “They’re
almost always chatting about the weather while
nursing their coffee. As it gets colder, they linger
a little longer. And, you know, I always feel a
responsibility. When we close those two and a
half days, I want to be here for them.”
His usual: a coffee and a “medium rare” blueberry muffin,
(read: fresh out of the oven). Plus one to go.
BECKY RAND
034-44MainAtl606.indd 34 18.10.2006 21:54:01