Coffee — an oasis of human fellowship

Perhaps I’ve overstated this, but a recent visit to a local coffee shop, Mama Lattes on Stewart Street, left me with this thought. I observed three interesting things while I was there.

A gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and gently used skin came in for a coffee drink. It was immediately apparent it was not for himself, because he needed to ask its true recipient outside “iced or hot?” He made a second trip to answer a second question and, if I remember correctly, it was to determine the size.

A mother came in and asked the shop owner and an employee to take a picture holding a colored and cut out paper figure I believe created by her child or a child she knows. The owner and clerk were happy to oblige.

A Milton High student came in and the clerk asked first where his friends were and second if he wanted his regular. He was an athlete and soon his fellow teammate with a female friend joined him at the coffee shop. There was clearly a shared history between these students and the people of the shop. They talked recent school events and how the first student got in trouble with his teacher.

This was not all I observed. Upon arrival I found a man on the shop’s couch engrossed in a pile of papers before him. Later, two women, one in maybe her 20s and the other probably twice ordered drinks. Likely related, the second was surprised to learn the first had filled her punch card already. They were regulars who came together and the younger admitted she had come by herself on occasion.

I could easily have made this about small business, about how hometown, local shops bring people together. There’s a kernel of truth there, but I feel this same scene could play out in Pace’s Coffee Break Café, server of Drowsy Poet coffee. Although I suspect a local owner is generally more invested in the community than a manager.

Instead, I want to talk of hope, as simple as that may sound.

I feel as a representative of the xennial generation — snugly fit between generation X and the Millennial generation — I’ve always got one foot in the future and one in the past. And I’d rather be happily stepping forward than trying to step back.

To this end I’ll start by saying “Gen X (and those previous), I feel you.” Before the internet, there probably was more regular, face-to-face human interaction. More people were in bookstores, shopping in physical stores, and talking to each other at barber shops rather than concentrating on their phones.

But here’s my hope — maybe we’re only slowly eliminating the inconvenient interactions. Self-checkout in retail and food, and ordering online gives us more time, maybe, to interact how we wish. The internet has simplified finding like-minded people for activities like bird watching and running. Community centers are on Facebook letting people know when they can come play pickleball or announcing the big bingo winners — congrats, Betty Douglas. And of course, Mama Lattes daily tempts the locals with frothy coffee and current soups and sandwiches.

Owner China Holcombe said in a video the shop posted with county commissioner Sam Parker, “We don’t provide just coffee. We provide an environment.”

This is the oasis of humanity. Even decades from now when nearly everything is automated, I suspect people will still come together for two things: coffee in the morning and alcohol in the evening.

Aaron Little is the editor of the Santa Rosa Press Gazette and the Crestview News Bulletin. You can reach him at alittle@srpressgazette.com

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Coffee — an oasis of human fellowship