Not all red roses have thorns and smell perfumy.

Proof is the Red Rose Diner I found along Towanda's main street during a ride along Pennsylvania's U.S. Route 6.

The Red Rose's scent is a mixture of omelets, waffles, homemade pies and chicken soup -- a place where it's a pleasure to wake up and smell the coffee.

Mostly, Gordon Tindall's 1927 dining car reeks of nostalgia.

That's because "Gordie," as his help and customers call him, can't resist the lure of the past.

He paid $5,000 for the wreck of a diner in Stroudsburg, Pa., eight years ago and moved it to Lancaster, Pa., for restoration. He named the diner after Lancaster, known as the "Red Rose City."

It took more than six years to renew the Red Rose while Gordie worked at many jobs to keep himself afloat.

This almost-60-year-old's resume includes moving dining cars like his all over Pennsylvania, 15 years on the railroad, truck driving, delivering packages, selling antiques, jobs in meat packing, a steel mill and at Du Pont in Towanda, planting and picking flowers with the Amish, and modeling for art schools, sometimes in his birthday suit.

The Red Rose, opened July 1, 2005, is his second dining car. He operated the first in Clarksville, N.J., for six years then sold it for $70,000. The new owners moved it to Paris.

"My life does not make sense," said Gordie. "Things grab me and I go with them. I guess I do more with guts and heart than I do common sense."

Some things take a while. Gordie searched for years for a place to put the Red Rose. "I wanted to be in the neighborhood of an old theater," he said.

Towanda fit the bill. The Keystone Theatre is across Route 6 from the Red Rose.

Gordie built an 11-foot-by-40-foot two-story brick structure next to his diner, using cream brick and 1920s fixtures to match the era.

The second floor houses his living quarters and the paintings of his mother, Pat Tindall. She is gifted and Gordie plans a showing next month.

The first floor is an auxiliary kitchen where he bakes his pies at 5 a.m.

Gordie's work week covers 100 hours. The Red Rose is open 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, closed Sundays.

Like all diners, the Red Rose's best features are its people and food. Gordie's pies, potato salad and omelets are a few foods people mention. One guy stops in every day for a tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomato.

Betty Roof will likely be his waitress. This energetic 68-year-old -- owner of the B & D Diner in Wysox for 29 years before she sold it a dozen years ago -- is a surefooted presence.

You have to be in a 23-seat diner that measures only 12 by 34 feet.

"I love it," said Betty. "The job -- the people." She plans to stay for now. " 'Til I retire -- again," she said.

Her photo with Pennsylvania governor candidate and former pro football star Lynn Swann, taken recently in Towanda, is on the Red Rose bulletin board.

Amy Learn is a Friday night waitress. "I enjoy working for Gordon," she said. "Everybody is super-nice."

Don Delamater -- retired after 31 years on the Lehigh Valley, Erie-Lackawanna and Conrail railroads -- stops in for breakfast and tea in the afternoon.

"Gordon is the draw for me," said Don. "I'm addicted to his pies."

His face fringed in white beard and his britches held in place by suspenders, Don looks the master fisherman he is. Ask him about the 26 1/4-inch walleye he caught recently.

A less frequent visitor is Gordie Tindall's second wife, Valerie.

She'll spend most of her time in Iowa until her kids graduate from high school in a couple of years, he said.

"We see each other every two months for a week or two," said Gordie. "We have more fun than a couple of teenagers."

And he has fun doing what he does, and he does a lot. A picture of the 1952 Hudson he hauled from a Kansas pond and restored is on his bulletin board.

Next restoration is a 1963 Cadillac "flower car" or hearse that looks like those used in mobster funerals. He wants to dress up like Frankenstein and drive it in the Halloween parade.

Other restoration projects: A parade car built by a man from LeRoy and a 1947 Cushman Scooter.

Gordie needs to work on his own restoration. I asked how long he'll stay at the Red Rose. "Until I drop," he said. "It might be sooner. My legs are getting bad."

He's one of those guys who finds good in the bad. The drug he takes to deflate his swollen ankles isn't working, he said.

"But my elbows aren't sore anymore."

Originally published online here: http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/NEWS01/609110329