Tom and his parents went to dinner at the Diamond Mineral Springs restaurant in Grant Fork, Illinois, when he was home on Easter vacation from Northwestern in 1942.

Grant Fork is a small town (population 103 in 1940) about 17 miles west of Greenville. It is the site of the Diamond Mineral Springs, a one-time health spa, built in 1891. Originally it had a 30 room hotel (Hotel Windsor) and a recreation hall (dancing, billiards) and was open in the summer months. Patrons could bathe in the presumptive medicinal spring waters that contained an unusually high concentration of mineral salts…bicarbonate of soda, sodium chloride, magnesia, iron and lime.

The spa closed long ago, but the recreation hall was converted into a restaurant (more recently, two restaurants). The Diamond Mineral Springs restaurant is still busy, specializing in family-style fried chicken, and “mile high pies.”^[1]Whenever I visit Greenville, I look forward to eating there.