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Monday, October 21, 2013

Coffee Club.

Well in my younger years life revolved around the table.  My favorite table was at Nannie and Paw Paws and it (the table) didn't start life as a table.  It was a door my Paw Paw (maternal grandfather) had attached to a kitchen cabinet, a wall, and made a leg at the end thus extended the head with an arch, then had it covered in green Formica like everything else in those days.
It was early early Saturday mornings when my Uncle JL and Uncle Charles would show up to eat, drink, and visit with Nannie and Paw Paw.  A brother of each! an extension of the family ... it was always family back then.

Uncle JL who we called Uncle Jake... Always brought candy sticks.  Chix Sticks... of which I have not seen in years.  He sat with his back to the wall turned sideways to see the entire room.

Uncle Charles sat next to him and the younger would come and go as they moved through the house for this or that.  Aunt Gale, Carol, and Dickie as they got up and going.  I was the tag along at or below the age of five in those days.

The younger ones disappeared before I knew it.
It was Saturday mornings with just the adults...
JL was the first to go.
Uncle Charles took his chair!
Uncle Charles was the corner stone family/ visitor from "the city" He would do his dabbling at the farm and head to have lunch with Aunt Wilda whom he always called Rose... his Rose...

Uncle Charles got to where he didn't come as much.  But Aunt Gale with the boys grown now took his chair.  But instead of just Saturdays it was Monday through Saturday.  Sundays ... Well Paw Paw was gone before any of us got up to turn the heat or air on at the church before we got up.

For years it was just Nannie, Paw Paw, Aunt Gale and myself.

We lost Paw Paw...
We lost Nannie...
and now I've lost Aunt Gale.

So I stopped by a waffle house bar seat on the drive home to North Carolina.  All the servers were wearing Pink Breast Cancer support T-Shirts, Old men flank me on each side, my requested hot water with lemon was handed to me in a heavy porcelain mug. Which made me smile (as my Paw Paw would ONLY drink from these heavy mugs.)  I order my food but ask them to hold my bread that goes with my meal (I can't eat it anyway no need to waste it).  I eat my food thinking of the time Gale set up for one of her best friends to be a fast order cook at a waffle house one day.  Fulfilling a dream of his... and hers just doing something good for someone she really cared about.  This alone was making me not be able to breathe. 

She asked me if I wanted my coffee to go?
I asked if they put coffee on hold for those who need it.  We do she said... but so rarely!
Just put the coffee and toast on hold for someone who needs it I said.
I haven't charged you for the coffee she said... Go ahead! Charge me for it and leave it on hold.

Then the tears were out of control... I had to get myself together so I could pay my bill and get the heck out of dodge.

It was at that moment I the seed was planted in my mind for my new coffee club. 

I no longer have my personal group that could solve all the worlds problems in one sitting.  But I can only hope to grow the coffee share/ hold group by others pre paying for someone else's coffee and the business giving it to someone who can't afford it! 

These practices are typical in a LARGE city... but we as humans need to spread this practice to the rest of the world.... local.... and let it grow! http://www.coffeesharing.com/

You can help several ways... pre pay and allow the waitress or barista control who it goes to...( This is what I did Sunday on my drive home, and yesterday on the streets of Asheville.)  OR use your own business card and attach the receipt to the card. 

The point is... it just makes someone's day better.

I have chosen my coffee bar! I have talked to the owner!  I can pre pay... have the person who rings me up sign my receipt... I sign my receipt and I am free to give it to anyone I want!  They in return can take my employee signed receipt and my scribble on it and cash it in for what ever I paid for that day.

I am so cheap I take my own coffee to work!
So this is a big deal for me, as I will now have to save the change from each paycheck, along with what ever is not rounded to the nearest five dollars and I will use it once a week so it will never be more than $4.99 to give to a homeless person in town (Asheville)   I may even save them up for all I know!

My point is I will be able to afford a small breakfast treat and a coffee from some of my checks while others I will be lucky to pay for the coffee alone.  Luckily the bar I have chosen serves toast; a little something to put in their stomachs!

It is all something my Aunt Gale would do if she were me... being the last one in the coffee club... not having that coffee club meeting anymore but making sure the spirit of it continues! My Nannie and Paw Paw... Well.... please.... they never let anyone leave their home hungry so all these fit into what is missing in my life! 

NOW...  I can only ask that when you read this ... and next you purchase a coffee... ask if they share coffee's  or if they hold coffee's for those who can't afford it!  Just ASK!!!! You may start a trend that you enjoy more than Christmas.   Knowing that you brightened someone's day with a warm cup to put their hands around on a cold winter morning.  Knowing that if you add just an egg or toast ... it may be their meal for the day!  Life is about living... but it is just as much about giving!

I am not asking for you to give because of me!   But I am asking that you give or share in memory of my Aunt Gale... and all the people you always want to give too but refuse to hand them money.  DON'T but you could tell them where they can get a warm coffee and possibly more on you!

Especially if you work it out with the coffee house like I did so they can't just get a receipt out of the trash etc...


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