Coffee Shop Perspective - Then and Now

When I moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1985 I found myself visiting a coffee shop for the first time. Not for the coffee but for the selection of odd and esoteric books available to read or purchase. The place was called the Brillig Works and was located on The Hill right next to the University of Colorado. For all I know it's still there.

As I recall the walls were lined with dark rough wood akin to the all natural rocky mountain hippy style of the time. Wood tables and comfy chairs allowed for quality lounging while sipping coffee with a granola muffin fresh baked on premises. People sat around and talked about intellectual yet far out subjects from a liberal perspective while others read books or wrote poetry with pen and paper. A cassette player provided tunes from a recent new age release picked up at “Trade a Tape” around the corner. I didn’t like coffee at the time so I ordered an herbal tea and flipped through the pages of a book about Astral Projection. There were no computers, no cell phones, and no Mp3’s. I don’t think "Internet" was a word yet.

In 1990 I experienced another coffee shop in Boulder known as Penny Lane. It was located right next to a Health Food restaurant attached to the running store I was working at. Penny Lane was a haven for lost souls and aspiring poets. The biggest draw aside of coffee was a good selection of single cigarettes. Most all of the patrons smoked so the place was always super smokey. Whenever the running store ran low on small change I would go to Penny Lane to make an exchange because they never had a shortage of small bills. The few minutes I spent there left me smelling like an ashtray for the rest of the day. Cell phones may have existed but no one had one. Computers were big and used at home by a few people for word processing and accounting. The internet was some kind of electronic organization and nobody really knew what is and most still hadn't even heard of it. A few people still believed poetry was a viable way to make a living. I think Penny Lane still exists but they may have moved to a different location.

20+ years later I find myself enjoying a Latte from time to time. I’m now a sometimes occasional regular at a local neighborhood coffee shop in Houston,Texas. What’s different these days is that everyone has their head stuck in a laptop. Myself included. Eyes shift between a smart phone for texting and a laptop with 5 pages opened. An i something pumps out weird tunes and nobody really talks until around 5 pm when the happy hour crowd arrives for beer or wine. Most all of your independent coffee shops serve alcohol now. I mean really, how does a business survive on just a $1.50 cup of Java? Plenty of people write on their computers but I don’t think many write anything poetic. It’s rare to see anyone reading a book and the only pen on premises is the one to sign your credit card receipt. A loose sheet of paper or spiral notebook with #2 pencil are a rarity if not obsolete. Plenty of people still smoke but no one would even think of doing it inside. A coffee shop without wifi is like a coffee shop without coffee. It just doesn’t exist.