A car show in honor of Flo’s Diner’s most loyal customer

Canastota N.Y. (WSYR-TV)– At Flo’s Diner, you’re guaranteed a good meal, great service, and if you were lucky enough, a chance to spot one of the diner’s most loyal customers, Bob Popple – a man who loved the restaurant just as much as his vintage cars.

A longtime friend of Bob’s, Steven Jeffris, spent the past 30 years being fortunate enough to get to know him and enjoy their love for vintage cars together.

But after his recent passing, one thing Jefferis can say about Bob is “He loved his cars. His old school car as you can see. He got this going again after CCOVID. He loved his cars, that’s all I can say, the old cars like I do, or any one of us.”

Bob protected his beloved Ford Galaxy 500 right up until his final moments of life. Popple would drive the vintage car over to Flo’s to sit down, eat, stir up some trouble, and for years, have company around like Holly Nickel, who served him for the past 23 years at the Diner.

Holly remembers when Bob spoke of having a car show right in their parking lot for car lovers like him, “So he tried talking my boss into doing it for several years, and finally, she said she would do it, so he was the driving force for it,” said Nickel.

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For those who knew Bob, especially Holly, the car show in memory of him is something special. Even though he isn’t at the show, his car was brought down by his family members – a reminder that he’ll be at all the shows rain or shine.

If you couldn’t find Bob at the diner, you could “pass his house. He was doing something to do it, countless hours, any of them that he would work on, he would tinker with, polish, just try to get them up and running and tuned up,” said Jeffris.

Bob spent a lot of time sharing some of the greatest moments of his life with others in the restaurant. He would converse with one of his eldest friends, Roy Leggett about, the times when they would race each other.

“We used to race all the time, Bob, we were kids and we used to street race a lot, but you could get away with a lot more then. We did a lot of it. We used to race each other all the time,” Leggett said.

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