There's a book of quotations I have on the shelf, it was published in 1942 and I love the slightly tatty blue cover and yellowing pages. It was given to me by a good friend after her grandmother had died. I had met her once or twice and she loved a good argument and I was only too happy to oblige. Politics, religion, history, she knew her stuff. After she had died my friend presented me with the book, saying that her grandmother would have found it amusing for me to have it. Anyway, I was looking for a quotation today, one about coffee, there were a few but none that seemed to fit. I was flicking through the book seeing if anything would leap out at me. Which it did. A scrap of paper fell out. An advertisement from a grocers shop in the run up to Christmas 1944 making particular mention of gifts for friends. Particularly making gifts of coffee.
It made me smile, the old girl had probably used it as a book mark doing exactly the same thing as I was 61 years ago, rooting around for an appropriate quote. It was a tiny moment of connection with the past that made me think, nothing particularly insightful or deep, but that I should buy someone I like a cup of coffee tomorrow and catch up.
8 comments:
This made a slow wide smile cross my face. Thank you.
A lovely story. I was recently given an old cookbook by a woman clearing out her maiden aunts possesions. When I went through the clippings she had in the book I so wished I'd known her. I think we were soul mates.
Wonderful. I love books of speeches and quotations. How's this age-old Turkish description of coffee? "Black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love." Or this inane quotation from a 1674 women's petition against coffee: "Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." :-)
Thanks guys and thanks for the quotes!
i think chubby hubby has summarized my sentiments towards coffee perfectly
MG: Dude! You're doing beautiful things with your blog design. I had to sneak a peek at your source code to see if I could learn any tricks. Maybe I'll experiment. I'm very impressed (you see, because I'm html-deficient).
Sam: Me too. Has it occurred to you that you may be a super-taster? Typical distates are coffee, hoppy beer and green bell pepper. Basil, too (for me, but I may only be a semi-super-taster).
thats funny - i don't like green pepper - only other colours, much to fred's disappointment. I need to find out more about supertasters
Wonderful post. Great photo. Same kind of espresso pot we use! : )
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