Coffee and Conversations: Nostalgic Moments Over a Cup
“Cropped shot of a happy young couple spending time together outside.” Source: Travel Noire.
The people of the HistoryMakers Digital Archive have a slew of different things to say about fond memories of drinking coffee. Here is a playlist of the clips discussed below.
George Forbes is a lawyer and politician originally from Tennessee. He grew up to serve on the Cleveland City Council as well as the president of the Cleveland NAACP. Here, he discusses spending time with his maternal grandfather and coffee.
[Y]ou drain the coffee in a cup. And he would drink the coffee out of the cup. And when he would finish drinking the coffee, he would turn the cup upside down in the saucer. Now bear, bear in mind that this, this is not perco- you know this is, didn't come from a coffee pot, because the grounds would be in the, in the coffee cup. He'd turn it upside down. And then after about five or-- minutes, he said, "Well, let me, let me read this cup. Let me see what your fortune is." And he would take the cup, and he'd say, "You know, George [HistoryMaker George Forbes], I see you'll have a long life, you know, and, and it look like, look like something's gonna happen next week." And we would be, we would just be (laughter) enchanted with my grandfather reading the coffee cup, right. And that happened, that would, every time he he'd drink a cup of coffee he do, and I couldn't wait to, 'til I got grown so I could read a coffee cup, see what the grounds (laughter) would say. So that was some of the things that he would do with us. And … the thing is that, no matter how poor, and these were, we were poor people, there was always something that you could find levity, you know, and find joy. [1]
A man holds two lattes in a coffeeshop. Source: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times
James Earl Jones is an actor, perhaps most famous for voicing Darth Vade in the Star Wars movies. Here, he discusses a favorite childhood teacher of his who “reeked of coffee.”
The middle school I went to in Dublin, Michigan in a one-room schoolhouse. There was seven children in the whole school. I was the only one in my class. The girl in front of me, third grade, was the only person in her class. The little boy behind me, Dickie Crofo [ph.], first grade was the only person in his class. Doesn't sound so dreadful really, because we got a lot of attention. For one, everything we learned was repeated over and over again from class to class. With wonderful teachers, the first one was a Norwegian woman named Miss Elifson [ph.]. She reeked of coffee. That I remember. She smelled like coffee, she drank coffee constantly. She was not unkind. Coffee didn't make her cranky. Coffee probably made her cool (laughter). And then there was a woman, Miss Gardner [ph.]. Miss Gardner had a moment with me. The first day of school I peed in my pants and she said to me, "Come up here." School was a space with desks and then there was a space for classes, a long bench for classes. Come up here means come up here to the class area. And I walked up with dread. I thought I was in for punishment. She instead embraced me. She was a full woman, embraced me in a way that nobody has ever embraced me before or since, and I collapsed in tears. [2]
Darth Vader latte art. James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. Source: StarWars.com.
Carl Ray (1944—2014) was a playwright and engineer whose major work, A Killing in Chocktaw, received major acclaim. Here, he describes the breakfasts of his childhood.
Ah yes, ham in the morning, hams sounds, you know because mama [Vidella Ray] always got up and cooked that ham and grits and eggs and you always got that coffee. That would stick 'cause they had coffee first. You had that Maxwell House coffee and when you woke up in the morning you smelled that and you smelled ham. And the sights, we, we had this--there is this area where we would go. It was--we call it "the bottom" and you know in the summertime when the, the, the water levels get low we would always go to "the bottom." We had a well in "the bottom;" we had a well at the house, and in "the bottom" we had the creek and this great white sand I used to go play in as a kid, so, under this big hickory nut tree. That was my favorite spot. [3]
William Gerald Fletcher, Jr. is a nonprofit chief executive the President and CEO of TransAfrica Forum. He describes falling in love with his wife on dates that included trips to Dunkin’ Donuts, a popular chain of fast food coffee shops.
Candice and I got together … when she came, when she came to Radcliffe [College, Cambridge, Massachusetts], I saw her and I thought this woman is really gorgeous and she'd never be interested in the likes of me because she has so much class and just, and I'm, I'm just like, I don't dress very well, I'm, I'm a radi--you know, one of these young radicals, you know. I didn't, I don't mean I didn't dress very well, I didn't put attention on that, you know. So her, my junior year [at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts], her sophomore year, we were both seeing other people. Now a number of people said to us, the two of you should check each other out. I said, "Oh" and she said the same thing. So, we then tried kind of getting, you know, trying to talk to each other and for whatever reason there was no spark and, which was good. Then, my senior year, she had broken up with a guy she was seeing, my senior year, I came up to her at a freshman orientation, my sister [Kim Fletcher Bryce] had just come in as a freshman, and she was talking to somebody and I walked up behind her and I slightly poked her and I said, "How was Paris [France]?" 'cause she had, I had, she had told me she was going to France for the summer, right, to study, and she turned around and had this wonderful grin on her face that she, she often has, and we just started talking, and talking and talking and talking, and we became friends and I was seeing somebody who at that point was living in [Washington] D.C., and so I wasn't looking to start another relationship and I didn't anticipate anything was going to happen but I found I really liked this woman and we would go out, we would drive to Dunkin Donuts and just talk and talk and talk and she loved to take rides and I fell in love with her. [4]
The original Dunkin’ Donuts in Quincy, Massachusetts. Source: Dunkin’ Newsroom
Reverend Dr. Ruth Teena Williams (1927 - 2011) was a priest at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church in Chicago. She also Unity Funeral Parlors and president of Unity Limousine Service. She also discussed coffee as an integral part of her growing up, as something that brought people to her house.
My brother named our house the Do Drop Inn, and because my mother would say to people invariably, "Do drop in some times," and she meant it. Whenever you're around, just drop in. And she was very hospitable, offering--you know, always had coffee on the stove, a coffee pot with the French coffee and the chicory and so forth, and she'd have cookies or something. Or in the summertime, lemonade. Coffee was a year-around event, 'cause that was very important among Creoles. [5]
George Haley (1925—2015) was the brother of Alex Haley, author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family. George Haley himself served in the Nixon Administration, and was also the U.S. ambassador to The Gambia from 1998 to 2001. He talked about how his family used coffee in their Christmas traditions, similar to how many other families use milk and cookies.
As I said, I remember just the love of a mother as a six year old and, of course, now as old as I am, I still am all but traumatized by the fact that she wasn't with us, you know, longer than that. And you talk about sharing stories. I guess, the two things I remember most about sharing was Christmas. When, say I was three in Langston [Oklahoma] and mother and dad [Simon Haley], we called her Mama, and dad got us ready for Christmas, you know, and its, that's the main thing I remember, really, really remember about what happened as a youngster with her. And they were preparing Alex [Haley] and me for Christmas, "Santa Claus is coming, if you, if you do, you know, you're good boys, he'll come, he may even, he may even have a rest stop here 'cause he's got all of these millions of houses to, you know, bring presents to but if you're good, he might even stay here for a little bit." We were just fascinated. We, with them made signs for Santa. We had a long, long drive way, Santa a rest stop, a rest stop for you. Sure enough, Santa, you know, on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, we got downstairs and, and Santa not only had come but I just remember seeing all these things, toys and clothes and whatnot. I was just fascinated. But the thing that fascinated me most, was the fact that Santa had come and stayed there as a rest stop. There were three coffee cups on the table. And Santa's cup was there. I looked and saw oh, he didn't drink all of his coffee. And Mama had made coconut cakes which was my favorite, and chocolate cake which was Alex's favorite, and Santa had a little bit of that left on either saucer. I was just fascinated with that. [6]
“George Haley and his brother, Alex.” Pryor Center for Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas.
Joe Hendricks (1927—2012) was the personal bodyguard of civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth and an activist in his own right, provided a memory of coffee at breakfast.
Now you see my mother [Bettie Perry Hendricks] come to the table on Sunday morning she could cook maybe biscuits or something and have a big breakfast and then she would be so proud sometime when she start cooking and waste her coffee on herself because she'd start thanking the Lord for what she had and she get overwhelmed into what she was doing. But it's a very, very nice going because they kept us in line with duty, a responsibility and we knew that outside of this room and not go there but we stayed with whatever was there and we worked it out because it was nothing but the farm to deal with.
Sources
The Honorable George Forbes (The HistoryMakers A2013.164), interviewed by Larry Crowe, May 9, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, The Honorable George Forbes talks about his maternal grandfather.
James Earl Jones (The HistoryMakers A2016.007), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, August 10, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 2, James Earl Jones remembers his early education in Dublin, Michigan.
Carl Ray (The HistoryMakers A2002.039), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 28, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 9, Carl Ray describes the sights, sounds and smells of his childhood.
William Gerald Fletcher, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2005.016), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, January 14, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 7, William Gerald Fletcher, Jr. describes meeting and falling in love with his wife.
Reverend Dr. Ruth Teena Williams (The HistoryMakers A2004.147), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 26, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, Reverend Dr. Ruth Teena Williams describes her mother's family background, pt. 2.
George Haley (The HistoryMakers A2004.054), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, May 20, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, George Haley shares his childhood memories.
Joe Hendricks (The HistoryMakers A2007.105), interviewed by Denise Gines, March 22, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 12, Joe Hendricks remembers the Great Depression.