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Date: 12 Jun 2006 13:43:36
From: bernie
Subject: Taking the Folks Coffee (pologies to Danny)(long)
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Last Thursday I made the 4th or 5th trip to my folks in as many weeks and took coffee. Dad is 92 and
in not-so-good health and mom is in the third or fourth year of Alzheimers. It is a six hour or more
drive depending on traffic through Albuquerque. When I opened up the coffeehouse some 8 years ago
and started roasting my dad was skeptical. Being from the deepest hollows of West Virginia and
having lived for 5 decades in New Mexico drinking coffee at the local oil field cafes he wasn't too
keen on the prospects of selling fancy schmantzy coffee in the desert. It didn't take long before he
was a convert though, along with my mom. Along the way I convinced them that drawing water from the
outside tap would yield better coffee than the in-house softened water if they didn't want to buy
bottled water. To this day my sweet little mom will toddle out and fill up a pitcher for making
coffee. I'm not sure she could now tell you why now, but it is some routine she enjoys and so it
continues. She may make a pot of coffee and pour a cup which gets reheated a dozen times, but one of
the comforts to her is making coffee and offering it to whoever walks in the door. So she gets fresh
coffee as often as I can make it up and as much as she wants.
The trip up is always a joy to me. The landscape from where I live in southern NM to the Four
Corners is a dramatic change. Miles and miles of miles and miles. The last few times I've gotten to
drive through rain which is treat for me these days. I'm the one driving up highway 550 with my hand
flapping in the wind and rain at 80mph like a kid on vacation looking for ways to drive dad nuts.
One of the things I notice most is up past Ghost Ranch and Jemez Springs the arroyos begin to show
green since they tend to get more rain than we do. The landscape can be brilliant reds, oranges,
blues, greens, blacks, whites and all colors of the rainbow depending on the sky, mountains, land
and vegetation. Around Jemez there are bluffs of white gypsum bolting into the cobalt blue sky and
laced with layers of red from millions of years past that now show like they were painted yesterday.
The smells really take me back a lifetime, too. The sweet summer smell of the Russian Olive in the
arroyos is full of memories of being a kid and running wild up and down those arroyos on hot summer
days. Sometimes chasing jackrabbits and cottontails along with collard lizzards and sometimes just
running one of dad's horses full gallop for the sheer hell of it. Dirt in the desert has a lot of
different smells, each one telling you where you are and what has recently happened. I guess one of
the joys of life for me is knowing that long time ago someone was smelling the same smells as me and
understanding what the earth was saying. Of course, they understood a lot clearer than I ever will
what all the messages were. Being out of touch of phones, radios, staff, customers and all the other
distractions of daily life is the blessing of long drives to the home town.
My dad just got released from a rehab hospital after a poor outcome for surgery on a deteriorated
vertebrae. Odds weren't too good going in and it is what it is. Six weeks of morophine had dulled a
once very keen mind and caused him to sleep most all through the past few trips I'd made. This trip
I wasn't too hopeful either. This old guy amazes me sometimes. He'd been taken off the morophine and
his mental acuteness was way, way better. The three of us children were kept pretty busy under his
directions for laying out a garden, getting stuff to improve his mobility, etc. The morning he
rolled down the new access ramp and out into the large drive to check the perimeter of his rose and
vegetable garden and see if anyone had screwed up the valves of his irrigation setup I felt a lot
better. He tired himself out quickly, but seemed content that the castle was safe.
When the subject of my business came up he reached back and remembered a comment about my buying
a gelato machine. Once he'd recalled that new twist he wanted the explanation of what the heck it
was and why I was interested in it. The explanation that it is really an unhealthy concion of
heavy cream with high fat content (sometimes) and was made fresh and had nuts and fresh fruit and
was soft to eat was music to his ears. "How does it travel?" "I'll bring up a batch next trip, Dad.
What flavor do you most like?" "Free." There is nothing better than swapping garden food or free
food in this man's opinion. So next trip along with the freshly roasted coffee I'll be packing fresh
gelato and hauling it up the six or so hours to an old guy with enough sense to realize that sitting
in a garden early in the morning and drinking his son's coffee ain't a bad situation. And I'll be
feeling so blessed to be able to do it.
Bernie
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Date: 12 Jun 2006 22:12:56
From: Ken Fox
Subject: Re: Taking the Folks Coffee (pologies to Danny)(long)
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another magical essay from a master . . . . . thanks.
ken
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Date: 12 Jun 2006 13:55:29
From: Johnny
Subject: Re: Taking the Folks Coffee (pologies to Danny)(long)
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"bernie" <bdigman@zianet.com > wrote in message
news:448dc3f2@nntp.zianet.com...
> snip
> So next trip along with the freshly roasted coffee I'll be packing fresh
> gelato and hauling it up the six or so hours to an old guy with enough
sense to realize that sitting
> in a garden early in the morning and drinking his son's coffee ain't a bad
situation. And I'll be
> feeling so blessed to be able to do it.
> Bernie
>
Long may it last :-)
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Date: 13 Jun 2006 01:08:24
From: ensenadajim
Subject: Re: Taking the Folks Coffee (pologies to Danny)(long)
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On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:55:29 -0700, "Johnny"
<removethis.huuanito@hotmail.com > wrote:
>
>"bernie" <bdigman@zianet.com> wrote in message
>news:448dc3f2@nntp.zianet.com...
>> snip
>> So next trip along with the freshly roasted coffee I'll be packing fresh
>> gelato and hauling it up the six or so hours to an old guy with enough
>sense to realize that sitting
>> in a garden early in the morning and drinking his son's coffee ain't a bad
>situation. And I'll be
>> feeling so blessed to be able to do it.
>> Bernie
>>
>Long may it last :-)
>
A strong second from here.
jim
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Date: 14 Jun 2006 21:36:01
From: Neal Reid
Subject: Re: Taking the Folks Coffee (pologies to Danny)(long)
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Hey Bernie, sorry your folks aren't doing so well
> The trip up is always a joy to me. The landscape from where I live in
> southern NM to the Four
> Corners is a dramatic change.
Sorry I missed you in my recent trip to Los Cruces - but I DID in
fact drive from ABQ to Los Cruces, to White Plains and back to
ABQ. The change IS amazing. I didn't make it to the Four Corners;
I imagine it's more of the same. WONDERFUL in the most denotative
sense of the term - full of wonder!
I'm, again, sorry for why you have to do it - but envious of the
fact you CAN!
--
M for N in address to mail reply
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