Credits: Some Like It Hot by Connie Prince, coffee cups from Where’s My Coffee by Aprilisa Designs, Break Time by Colie’s Corner, Up All Night by Darlene Haughin, Coffee Shop With Friends by Unforgettable Moments, Caffeinated by Jen C Designs Word Arts from Coffee With A Friend by Studio Bladovesta, Caffeinated by Jen C designs Journal paper by Friendly Scraps

Journaling:

Let’s Have a Cup of Coffee

“A cup of coffee” has always meant more than drink I enjoy first thing in the morning with breakfast. Don’t get me wrong; I have to have a good cup of coffee to greet the day and I won’t start my day with a bad cup of coffee. But coffee is a social event and always has been.

I was only 3 or 4 years old when I first had a cup of coffee and had already defined exactly what coffee was to me for life. After dinner at Noni’s house, the adults sat at the table and talked, sometimes they played cards, sometimes there were sweets. There was always good Italian espresso served in demitasse with little spoons. The cups were pretty and as the oldest child in the family, I’d always sat on someone’s lap at the table with the adults. Noni made me a cup of “cappuccino” so I wouldn’t feel left out; a demitasse filled with vanilla ice cream and a spoon of espresso. What that meant to me was that I had coffee with everyone after dinner; I was part of the social time. I still love ice cream with a little coffee in it today; wonderful memories.

As I got older, I occasionally had coffee for real at my grandmother’s house, but it was tempered with a lot of milk and sugar. I started actually drinking coffee when I was 15. Coffee was a stop Mom and I made after practicing driving at the mall parking lot after close. It was time to talk about driving, how I’d done that night, what I thought of the experience. The first time I hit 25 MPH, my heart was racing! That feeling didn’t last so long. I’ve since paid tickets a couple times going 85 on the freeway.

After driving talk, Mom and I talked about, well, everything. It was great mother-daughter bonding time and sharing a cup of coffee became always a wonderful social talk-time for us, even at home. It was during those driving talk days that I met John, a worker at the Dunkin Donuts where we went for coffee. John became a big brother to me and one of the best friends I ever had. John passed when he was fifty years old and I was asked to speak at the service. I’d met my other two closest friends at that same Dunkin Donuts in the next couple years after meeting John and we went for coffee after the funeral to toast, with coffee, to of beloved friend. That was what was appropriate for us. The coffee talks are what brought us all together in the beginning. When I get together with Kelly or Scott today there is always a coffee stop to finish off the day so we can talk a little bit more.

Once driving,, I visited my great grandmother every Tuesday for our standing coffee-date. I only missed our Tuesdays if I was out of town. Then I always sent a postcard! Mums and I had been close since I was a small child. I was the first great-grandchild and our bond never broke. We often talked about cars. My dream car was a Chevrolet Camaro. Hers had been a Ford Mustang, which she finally did have as her last car. There had always been somebody to talk her out of getting the car she loved since it first came out when she was a valve inspector at Ford Motor Company. She loved her “pony car” and encouraged me to not listen to anybody else and get my dream car when I could afford it and the opportunity presented itself. She took a lot of pictures to show off to her friends when I drove my first Camaro into her driveway for Tuesday coffee!

In professional situations there are always social opportunities after work. Sometimes those opportunities are to go to the local bar and have a beer, but the most productive casual outings with coworkers for me have been the coffees after work. Whether it’s been shop talk, blowing of steam or getting to know a coworker a coffee chat has always been a more personal and quieter atmosphere. There are coworkers I enjoyed coffee with 20 years ago that are good friends today. And we still get together for coffee.

So to me, coffee never really has been just a beverage. Perhaps that’s why I picky about the quality of the beverage I drink; coffee has always been important to me and the coffee I drink must always be of the same quality as the special relationships it represents.