Well, Coastal Coffee House has closed
for the season. We are now officially in “winter mode” here in Searsport. For
the die-hard coffee folks, we will change our venue to Coastal Coffee East – better
known as Dunkin Donuts.
The final day was Veterans Day. It went
out in grand style. Thanks to Karen and Tim Rose, we had a nice “Thanks
Veterans” cake that we served to anyone having coffee that day, and as a
special treat, a former Marine, “Old”
Charlie Snowdale (97 years old), sang the Marine Hymn all by himself…. No assistance
needed. Way to go, Charlie!
An older lady came in that day. She was
traveling through Searsport, spotted the “Open” flag, and stopped for a quick
cup of coffee to go. She sported a
sweatshirt that said, “I See No Reason To Act My Age”. Several of us commented
how much we liked her sweatshirt, and she thanked us for noticing. I mentioned
a tee shirt I’d seen earlier this year on another older person. The front
sported, “When I was a kid I wanted to be older”, and on the back you saw,
“This is not what I expected.” Our customer said she DEFINITELY wanted to get one of those…
The most interesting tee shirt this
season, however, involved a shirt AND a baseball cap.
A gentleman had on an LSU (Louisiana
State University) ball cap, and a bright red tee shirt with “Bama” across the
front. He mentioned that he is an Alabama graduate.
As a side note, I noticed that every
time he mentioned “Alabama”, he parenthetically added, “Roll Tide”. I have a
hunch that Alabama has a state law that states anytime a ‘Bama grad mentions
the school without saying “Roll Tide”, they lose their driver’s license for a
month, or something like that..
Anyway, he went on to explain that even
though he was an Alabama alumni, his son chose to attend LSU, and was going to
be a junior this fall. Well, I exclaimed, that must have sprouted a few testy
discussions when he picked that school to attend. “That’s nothing”, his wife
replied, “I’m an Auburn grad”.
Now, for those not familiar with
college football rivalries, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry is akin to the
Hatfield-McCoy feud. It’s downright NASTY.
She continued, “When we started dating, it took me a month before I told
my parents he went to Alabama, and after he proposed to me, it was several
weeks before I stopped taking off my engagement ring whenever I went into our
house.”
We talked a little bit about the
various side bets that are taken each year when the schools play each other.
That’s when I found they have an older daughter who graduated from Florida
State. Talk about rivalries… this family has the mother-lode of them all.
