I didn't start out liking coffee houses. As a matter of fact, when I was a kid I couldn't even stand gourmet coffee. My parents loved to spend time in coffee and tea houses, passing hours having long conversations that were above my head with their intellectual friends between playing sets of acoustic folk music. I couldn't stand it. They dragged me along, but I was always bored to tears. I was expected to behave myself in the coffee house. My parents would usually have me bring a book along in case I got bored, but I couldn't read in that environment. It was always too loud, too smoky, and too cramped. Instead, I would usually go outside and wander around until they saw that I was missing, went searching for me, and scolded me.
Once I got to to college, however, coffee houses took on a different significance to me. My roommate roasted his own coffee beans, and soon I was hooked on the drink. Coffeehouses were not only a great place to study, but also a great place to meet girls. I was also getting more interested in doing my own writing, and sitting in a coffeehouse was a perfect way to get out of the house for a few hours to do some work.
When I first got to school, there were dozens of coffee houses in the area. They were all local ones too – and none of those Starbucks coffeehouses that you see on every street corner nowadays. I found a little hole in the wall that I loved to go to – smoky, crowded, and with that bohemian atmosphere that undergrads love. Within six months, however, it was closed.
It was happening all over the city. The coffee houses were closing, being driven out of business by the big chains. A new Starbucks would open up on the corner, complete with free parking, and people would flock to it. Of course, not every coffee house closed down. Bill's Place downtown, one of the oldest coffee shops in the district, was a big destination for the local music scene,. All the Starbucks coffee in the world could not change that. Even so, most of the other independent coffee houses were closing, one after the other. It seemed like a shame that, as soon as I discovered local culture, I had to see it decimated before my eyes. It definitely served as a wakeup call.
|
