Have a cup of coffee and I’ll enjoy the memories

        I don’t drink coffee, but my dad and mom did and my brother does to this day. I guess I am the odd ball out.
       I will drink coffee if it is loaded with sugar and creamer, but I haven’t done that for years. I much prefer cold drinks, even on cold days and nights.
       Back in the day, it would be nothing for me to enjoy a 16-ounce bottle of Pepsi at 4 a.m. or 6 p.m. Today, my favorite drink is unsweet iced tea. I drink it by the gallon. Well, not all in one day. But I drink a lot of it.
      I remember as a kid in elementary school once joining my dad and the other men in his Sunday School department at the First Baptist Church in Tulsa. The men always enjoyed a cup of coffee or two after the Bible lesson and I wanted to be there with my dad.
      I poured a cup of coffee and then added sugar and creamer. There I was, a little man, sipping on my cup of coffee along with my dad and the other men.
      In spite of that and many other experiences, I never gained a taste for coffee or any kind of hot drink. 
     My mom had an Corning Ware Electric Blue Cornflower Coffee Pot. Many households back in the day had one and I’m sure still do to this day. That coffee pot lasted for years. They don’t make appliances like that these days.
     We carried it with us on our family camping and fishing trips and August vacations. I can still see my mom frying fish and potatoes in an iron skillet on the Coleman camp stove while a pot of coffee brewed nearby. If there was no electricity, she took the insides of the pot out and made brewed coffee the old-fashioned way on the camp stove.
     In my teen years, my family enjoyed Sunday lunch at the Eastside Café on Admiral on the north edge of Tulsa. It was a greasy spoon that served good food, especially the onion rings and fired chicken, and plenty of hot coffee. I always enjoyed eating at the Eastside Café as I got to drink a cold Pepsi with my meal.
     It didn’t matter how the long the line was to get in the café, my family stayed put in the booth until my dad was finished drinking a pot of coffee. The waitress would come around with the pot of coffee and he would motion her over to fill his cup. It took him awhile, too. Finally, once Dad had his fill, it was time to leave.
     I don’t know how I got off on the subject of coffee, but it sure does stir up a lot of good memories. Maybe it was driving past a Starbucks during a recent trip to Ankeny with Debbie to pick up supplies at Sam’s Club and Tractor Supply. I noticed that folks were lined up in the drive-through like traffic in New York City.
     People like their coffee and are willing to sit in their SUVs and sports cars for hours and pay big bucks for it.        According to statistic on the subject, almost 50 percent of Americans who buy coffee outside the home do so at a drive-through. Another statistic I found on coffee noted that specialty coffee sales are increasing 20 percent every year. No wonder Starbucks is doing so well as our the sales of Keurigs and expresso machines for coffee drinkers.
     Even in small towns coffee houses are quite popular these days. Brooklyn and Montezuma both support local coffee houses and Grinnell has two coffee joints, including a drive-through on Highway 146. They all seem to be doing quite well.
     And of course, the local convenience stores, eateries, farm stores and other small-town haunts are favorite stops for locals to enjoy a hot cup of coffee and chew the fat during an afternoon break. I can visit with the best of them, but forget the coffee. I would much rather enjoy a pizza and have a glass of iced tea.
     I leave you with the following coffee-drinking stats from urbanbeancoffee.com:
• 64 percent of American adults currently consume coffee every day.
• More than 150 million Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee per day or more than 140 billion cups per year.
• 79 percent of Americans prepare coffee at home.
• 35 percent of coffee consumers usually drink black coffee.
• The average U.S. Coffee drinker consumes 3.1 cups per day.
     An Internet search on the coffee drinking will provide you with the above stats and enough more to write a book.
     I leave you with this, enjoy a cup of coffee and I’ll enjoy the memories while drinking a cup of iced cold tea.
    Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.