COFFEE’S PROMISING WHIPPERSNAPPERS
THE HUMAN RACE
THE EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF JAVA
When I started drinking coffee in
the late 1940s, a panhandler might have
asked, “Hey, Bub, can you spare a dime
for a cup of java?” Today he’d say,
“Hey, dude, can you spare a fiver for
a Black Forest espresso smothered in
cherries and chocolate?” Or maybe a
less expensive Mocha Latte? There was
no decaf when I was a young man sampling
life in Los Angeles. You’d hit a diner
and take a stool at the counter. A waitress
with a cigarette dangling from her lips
would coo, “What’ll it be Sweetie?”
All you had to say was, “Coffee.”
If, as she poured, an ash from her Camel
flittered into your brew, no problem.
You’d add a couple of lumps of sugar,
cream, stir with a metal spoon, and
gulp it down. Ash and all. Like
clockwork she’d sashay along the
the counter refilling cups. No extra
charge. You’d add a nickel or a
Mercury-head dime to the damages. Except in
ritzy joints like the Hollywood Brown Derby
where movie moguls penciled thoughts on white
linen tablecloths, even loose pennies would
qualify as a reasonable gratuity. To order
a brew at a Coffee Bean or Starbucks today,
it’d help to have an analytical mind. You
stand in line watching servers mixing
concoctions like an Iced Blended Tea
Latte and wonder: Who are these
erudite whippersnappers? They’re
everything imaginable: Future chemists,
psychoanalysts, artists, bartenders,
actors, CEOs, even college professors.
— Boots LeBaron —
Boots’ new book, “THE HUMAN RACE,” is now available on
Amazon in Kindle and paperback. With humor, inspirational
essays and stories about real people, it focuses on life,
death, the workplace, Showbiz, God and broken hearts.