Out late, four o”clock in the morning late. Vying with the milkman and newspaper deliveries. Why so late? Teenagers relish the feeling of breaking rules, doing things that if their parents never learned of before they passed over, that would be OK. 

If they’ve imbibed more alcohol than necessary, then the best drunk food is the early breakfast of bacon, eggs, grits, and biscuits. Or perhaps that greasy cheeseburger from the local drive in joint, mythologically easing any queasiness. And it’s just so damn good. 

One of our favorites was the Capitol Café on Main Street in Columbia, SC. Reliably open, near crowded, but I felt alone and doing something frowned upon by decent folk. I saw Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks at a museum once, the grill man cleaning a glass, one customer eating alone, a couple around the counter talking intimately. You see all of this from the dark street outside through the plate glass window, the only light coming from inside the diner. That’s how I felt.