Many of you know that I have a very extreme relationship with coffee. Truth be told, my relationship started when I was quite young. I am not even sure I was in elementary school when I had my first taste of coffee. Often for breakfast, especially on the weekends, my dad would have these short bread cookies called Lorna Dunes ( I probably spelled that wrong ). The cookies, alone were kind of bland and dry, but dunked in coffee became a delicacy!! It got so bad (my stealing my father’s coffee) that he decided I should have a cup of my own. This coffee I drank was one part milk, two parts sugar, and the rest coffee. In other words, I was drinking sugar and milk with coffee, so of course it tasted really good.
This went on for several years before I just stopped. I often wonder if this is one of the reasons I stayed short. “They” always said that drinking coffee stunted your growth. If this is true - I could be a poster child :-)
It was many years again before I had coffee. I was teaching the South Williamsport band. We were at a contest at Williamsport High School. It was VERY, VERY cold. After the band performed, which was of course near the end of the contest, the snack bar was out of hot chocolate and tea. The only thing they had left to drink that was hot was coffee. There were parts of my body that were quickly losing any feeling so I decided I would suck it up and drink the coffee. Now it may have been the extreme cold, it may have been that my palate had changed, or it just may have been desperation, but I ordered the coffee only to
find out there was no cream or sugar!! With great reluctance I started to drink the coffee, and to my sheer amazement - I loved it! Thus began my intimate relationship with coffee. For many years I drank my coffee black and loved it. I always told my friends that if you put anything in your coffee you were not really experiencing “real coffee flavor.”
Not sure for how many years I drank my coffee black and not sure how much I drank. Some days it was a pot for myself. I remember being so hooped up on coffee and teaching that I was bouncing around my classroom. One of my students did ask how many cups I had had already drank on this particular morning. It was only third period and I was up to six cups. I believe that during this period of my life I was an addict. I was always drinking coffee and never seemed to get enough. My students that year chided me by writing on their final exams that the one thing they learned this semester was how much I loved coffee!!
Eventually, as all good things do, my stomach turned on me. I could not drink black coffee without getting really sick in the stomach. After some medical treatment, a diagnosis of GERD was assigned to me. Initially I was going to treat this condition with not eating and drinking certain foods. As you know that did not work well for me. I continued to drink coffee, but now with milk. It seemed to help for a while but eventually I had to be put on stomach meds so I could drink coffee. Now the doctors did not know that (I guess?) but that is really what happened. I started taking stomach meds so that I could continue to drink coffee. I often think how silly this is, but I can’t imagine life without coffee. I try to regulate my coffee drinking these days. The advent of coffee shops was amazing. I would rather go to a coffee shop than a restaurant. I thought when I was going through graduate school, I would have my counseling business in a coffee shop. I would call it “Coffee and a Chat.” I have always found that sitting down with a good cup of coffee and a good friend was the best way to have a serious conversation.
So it started when I was just a little nipper with sweetened coffee and cookies, but really began on a bitter cold night in Williamsport when I had my first taste of black coffee.
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