Marsha’s first visit to Thompson Springs occurred in 2007, in the company of her sister Jeanne and couple of friends. They were on their way back from a road trip to St. George, UT, where they’d been training on photography for special needs children.
While gassing up at the truck stop just off the highway, they spied an old broken down diner a short stretch away. I’m not sure what possessed them to check the place out – some combination of Jeanne’s perpetual fascination with the macabre and Marsha’s undying affection for the… well, the dying.
They spent hours poking through the detritus — rusted metalwork overgrown with weeds, rodent carcasses long since blanched by the sun and wind.
One of the appealing aspects of the place (or so I have been led to believe) was the sense of near-decay exhibited throughout — you could picture folks perched on the line of stools at the counter, slices of bread popping from the toaster, a pot of gravy warming on the hot plate. It was all terribly broken down but not so far gone that signs of life were completely absent.
A newspaper was dated 1990, suggesting the place had stood vacant and neglected for 17 years.
17 years. There’s really no telling how many critters, or people, might have poked around in there in a 17 year span. Probably not many. In 2007, it’s not like the place was calling out “Come visit!”
I mean, it was to Marsha and Jeanne, but their ears are attuned to different frequencies.
All content and images © copyright Marsha Steckling
Cafe Decay 
I like this. We are going back East in May and will start looking for places of ‘decay’. Little places you normally wouldn’t give a second glance to, will be rediscovered. Plus the points of interest or… decay that you pointed out, will lead someone else to search them out. Places of decay tell a story about the people who once were. What did they do? Why did they leave? Were they attacked by gangs of cats? Hedgehogs perhaps? I like to think about their stories.
Its like the black rose Marsha keeps. Who saw the rose when it was in its short prime of life. What was the occasion? Now that its black, and dead, is all its value gone and dead as well? I think not!