(Redated and reposted after some additions)
Last week I noticed a picture of an old workingman’s cafe in Enid. The picture was self-explanatory. Why did little cafes do a good business? Because they were right next to downtown apartments and rooms where most people lacked kitchens.
Decided to do a proper salute to cafes and coffee.
Here’s a downtown scene. The cafe is on a corner, the Kellogg printing plant is across the street, and an apartment hotel is on the other corner. Duplex tenant houses are in the foreground. A truck from the ice plant is delivering to the cafe. No cars needed.
As you walk into the cafe, you see the waitress pouring coffee for a customer…
And here’s a better view of the equipment, centered on the Bunn-O-Matic coffee machine.
Our Martian prefers cold drinks to coffee, so Polistra is drawing him a nice refreshing Nesbitt.
Martian, an old hand with telepathic technology, tries out the Swami Napkin and Fortune Dispenser, guaranteed to give you correct answers to your questions.
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You could make a good argument that the renaissance in both Arab lands and Euro lands was caused by coffee. Farmers around the Red Sea, in Yemen and Ethiopia, were drinking cold coffee berry juice for hundreds of years before the roasting and brewing process developed around 1200 AD. It quickly spread through Arab and Muslim lands at the same time as the fast growth of astronomy and math. It reached Constantinople around 1500, where Euros first encountered a coffeehouse. From there it zoomed out through Europe. John Smith brought it to Jamestown in 1607 along with the first English settlers. Again it spread quickly, aided by the NYC tax evaders who associated the British tea habit with evil taxes. Their rebellion was plotted in coffeehouses.
The colonists soon picked up the tobacco habit from the natives, and sent tobacco back to Europe as an appropriate trade for coffee. Two enjoyable herbs that aid thinking were both spreading at the same time.
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Polistra's Mill 