Saturday, March 27, 2004


regional coffee culture, part xxii

it's not that a group of retired men in the rural midwest stopped a petty act of vandalism. it's that they are known as the "coffee guys."

that's what's interesting. long-time readers recall that i've often written here of this interesting and native part of the u.s.a. coffee culture. nowadays if we talk about american coffee culture, people often think of the mermaid, or the burgeoning sales of pricey home espresso machines.

rarely do we stop to think of the authentic, older, post-wwii coffee culture, preserved now mostly among the retired. yet this is the beautiful small-town america i personally recall from my earliest childhood in ft. scott, kansas.

as i've said many times before, in ft. scott we never locked our doors, and if a neighbor wanted to visit, they felt free to come in thru the kitchen, sit down, make a pot of coffee, and wait for our return. everyone was naturally welcome in everyone's house.

of course this world has vanished forever, the only remnant being this coffee culture. i'm sure in ft. scott people now lock their doors and would freak out if you appeared in their kitchen. the town has grown and changed, as the website will tell surely reveal.

of course i couldn't now live there. but there were some good values even in those days (along with the reprehensible discrimination); and we see how coffee was the glue that supported a vanished openness and sense of community.

there remain groups like the coffee guys all over the midwest and in the south. they may not have yet discovered specialty coffee or the scaa -- they may never make it to the upcoming consumer events at the conference in atlanta -- they may drink maxwell house -- but yet the true spirit that coffee represents is there.

coffee lovers. gotta love 'em. . .

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