Fast food, with a side of heart and soul

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Beacon Diner will probably never get the American Heart Association seal of approval.

But the Beacon does have the approval of most everyone else. CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports it's a place where folks from across the country and line up -- out the door -- partly for the food you order. But also, partly for how your food is ordered.

J.C. Stroble, 70, is legally blind from glaucoma, and has been working at the Beacon since he was 15. How does Stroble still have fun on the job after all those years?

"I love it," he said. "You've got to love people, which I do."

He is what they call the caller. Customers tell him their order and he calls it out to the cooks -- often using a bizarre language of his own invention. Stroble said it's like a shorthand meant to keep the line moving as fast as possible. But, it can have the opposite effect.

Kenny Church, the general manager, said Stroble "doesn't realize what kind of show he puts on. They'll stand there and watch him for 15 or 20 minutes."

Customers like how he "hollers out the order for you," and "keeps order in this place." His popularity is something no fast worker has ever attained. Presidential candidates stop by to see him.

Still for Stroble, being all that is not the end-all-be-all. Stroble says he's most proud of his wife Robay.

Robay says family has always trumped fame. "He was a good father. That's why my kids are where they are and like they are now," she said.

Stroble wanted his kids to get an eduction. Three out of his four kids listened and graduated from college. But his oldest, Kiki, is a different story.

"I felt like I didn't need an education," she said. But her father, the one who never quit on anything, refused to give up on his daughter either. He just kept telling her, 'Go to college.' He said he told her every day, and never let up on her.

This went on for nearly 30 years until a few months ago, when Kiki, too, graduate from college. She studied philanthropy.

Kiki's motivation was to start the J.C. Stroble Glaucoma Awareness Foundation. Her vision is to save other people's vision. She'll no doubt be successful -- as long as she keeps listening to her dad.

"You gotta put your heart and soul into it", Stroble says. "Heart and soul."

[FAID2GREY]

Why do they put hoods around food serving lines? Because people talk while going thru them. Ever see how much spit comes out of someone while they talk? If not sit behind a food serving line, Here this guy is barking out orders at the beginning of the serving line right next to the serving trays. Isnt that cute?

[longtree-2009]

it works for some people, no doubt. personally would find it annoying for two reasons, 1. there are long lines, 2. shouting is just not for all. the business must be making big bucks to keep him on the payroll when a computer system at several cashier positions could do the job faster like at most fast food restaurants. but at 70, he has a job at a time when most people are unemployed regardless of age or gender. so good for him.

[signseeker1717]

The entertainment value may be part of the reason people go there in the first place. Otherwise, they'd just go to one of those many impersonal, interchangeable fast food places.

CBS: Granted this is a human interest story about a colorful individual, but the sub-story is about the importance of getting a college education: "...when Kiki, too, graduate from college". Have your writers and editors "graduateD from college" too? Spell check won't catch these types of errors. PLEASE invest in some proofreaders!