Coming from rural Vermont where coffee houses and espresso stands are all but unheard of, and where any coffee drink more involved than coffee with cream and sugar tends to be regarded with distrust and disgust, I'm often amused by Western Washington's juxtapositions. Gotta love it.
7 comments:
Very rugged. The mountain man knows how to adapt to the changing environment.
I suppose this is the flip side to our suburban moms driving their ginormous 4x4s to the (flat) Safeway parking lot?
Nice poem. The best part, I think, was the cadence. Many a great poem were ruined by shoddy cadence. Or do I mean meter? Maybe that. Anyway, good times.
mpclemens: It may make me a misogynist, but I never understood tiny women driving gigantic cars. 'Course, I am 6'3", 250lbs., and I drive a Hyundai Accent, which I am sure is equally ridiculous looking.
I think I was in line behind that guy at Starbucks today.
Adaptation indeed!
They're real, aren't they, Strikethru? I shamelessly stole this whole scene from real life: the coffee house where I like to hang out sometimes before work is set up on a hill overlooking the mountains (albeit with a grocery store in the foreground), and, especially since this place is kind of at the crossroads between Olympia and the more rural Mason and Grays Harbor counties, guys like this come in all the time.
It cracks me up...no farmer or carpenter or, for that matter, most people over twenty or so would have any idea how to order an espresso drink of any sort back home, but they do here. I've got an espresso stand near my place where rednecks in pick'em-up trucks hang out shooting the bull and drinking lattes. I love it.
My response in the vernacular of rural Ohio:
Lattes?! Sheeyat. (*spit*)
I believe my Wisconsin-born dad's response is more along the lines of "Pfft." But it conveys the same general emotion....
I admit, I'm more of a drip coffee person most of the time myself. This place roasts their own beans and has really good drip coffee, though. Can't remember last time I got something fancier.
I like coffee houses. They suit my passive personality. I get to observe people, hear conversations (whether I want to or intend to or not), and be less than alone, but all without actually *having* to interact with anyone unless I choose to. It's a social environment for the only marginally social. With tasty beverages and fresh pastries. Score.
You described the appeal of cafes just right-- a place to be social by yourself. That is exactly why I loiter in them so often.
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