Just before photographing this ghost of an old diner, I stopped for lunch at a small town restaurant just down the road. After seeing what other patrons were eating, I ordered the local specialty--a dinner plate-sized (really!) slab of breaded and fried pork served with mayo on a huge bun. We're not going to talk about my cholesterol level right now, thank you.

After rolling out the door and down the road, I immediately stopped at this jewel of a diner. With the art deco details, it would have been the most modern building in this Nebraska sandhills town back in the 1940s. Anyone care for chicken-fried steak and home fries?

At an art show in Cincinnati, one woman was thrilled to see this photograph. She told me that she was raised in this small town and frequently ate at the Jewel Diner all those years ago. Recently she returned to the town and found that the diner had been moved. To where, I don't know.

Lee Rentz