Coffee - an old one, renewed for this blog

It was a long time ago.

So long ago, the memories are fuzzy. Only a few items of clarity still exist.

I remember it was dark, early in the morning. Far too early for life to have started, but there we were, my young parents and three sleepy little boys, settling in for the beginning of "The Trip."

Who knows where we were going. Another vacation, another trip to the grandparents, it did not matter - they were all the same. Get up at some inhuman hour, struggle to get dressed, end up magically in the car.

I remember after we "got on the road", she would open the thermos of coffee, pour him a cup, and the smell would fill the car. The only noises heard were the steady hum of tires on the pavement, the scratchy AM radio playing Jim Reeves crooning softly, and my thoughts.

I was warm, I was safe, and there was coffee.

This was our life, for many years - and coffee was always a part of it.

When we arrived at my grandparents, the hugs, the laughter, and coffee.

Coffee was a joy, coffee was family.

As I grew up, things changed.

I left home, worked, had a family, and coffee changed.

It was no longer the happy, secure aroma. It bacame the life giving energy needed at 2 am when meeting deadlines. It became the harsh muscled up PE Coach in the fourth grade screaming for me to work harder, faster, and deliver more than I thought possible.

It was required.

No day could start without coffee. No project complete without gallons of coffee. It was the jet fuel for our rocket engines, the life giving energy we needed to survive.

Coffee, my friend, my task master.

No matter how many trendy coffee shops I have entered, no matter how many frappa-mappa-chickie-cinos I ordered, nothing ever had the experience of the original coffee memories.

Many years have passed, I raised children of my own, the nest is empty now - just the two of us.

Sometimes, late at night, when the rest of the world is asleep and the gallons of coffee are still percolating in my veins, I'll listen to some old crooner and as I drift to sleep...

It is warm, the hum of tires against pavement lulls me, and I smell it again...

Coffee...and I am home.