“Coffee Time Downtown”

By

Gerry Niskern

How old were you when you had your first cup of coffee? You know, that forbidden drink that wasn’t good for you. Why, the caffeine would stunt your growth!

The brew we know as coffee has been around prior to 1000 A. D. In fact, the world’s first coffee shop actually opened in Constantinople in 1475. Back then, the Turkish law actually made it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he failed to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

Throughout the settling of the West, coffee provided people with their morning wake up call.  The farmers, cattlemen, prospectors and miners in Arizona bought their coffee in the whole berry form. Most groceries kept their coffee under the names of the countries in which it was grown. The bins containing the various berries were marked Java, Rio, Santos, Jamaica, Sumatra and so on.  The early settlers could smell and taste and make their choice. Some even carried the green berries, which you could roast at home to suit yourself.

The first activity in the morning in homes in early Phoenix, after the fire was built, was getting out the coffee grinder, filling the old black coffee pot with water and Arbuckle’s Ariosa ground coffee, for years the most popular brand around.  Of course, after it boiled a while, they threw in a couple of eggshells to settle the grounds.

In 1859, packaged Arbuckle’s sold for 15 cents a pound. For many years coupons for premiums came in the packages. The most popular item redeemed for the coupons by the cowboys in the West was wedding rings.

Many times coffee was used as a medium of exchange instead of money. The Indians of Arizona frequently buried a package of Arbuckle’s Ariosa with their dead to sustain them in the happy hunting grounds.

In the l920’s Arbuckle’s sold out to the General Foods Corporation, but as late as the l940’s the grocers in Phoenix, such as A J Bayless and Bashas were still selling the Arbuckles brand.

As early as the l920’s Phoenix Union High kids were hanging out at a place called the Coffee Pot.   That establishment, shaped like a giant coffee pot, was located at 7^th street and Mc Dowell. It was still in business in the l940s.  The coffee was hot, strong and guaranteed to keep you awake during afternoon Geometry class.

Long time residents will remember Donofrios on  Central where the office girls working downtown went for their morning coffee break; before businesses started having their own coffee machines in the office.  Many a business deal was sealed at Googies on the Northeast corner of Central Avenue and E. Van Buren. And of course, the state workers from the Capitol building enjoyed strolling over to Capitol Drugstore on the corner of Jefferson and 17^th Ave for their coffee breaks.

In downtown Phoenix today, the kids from Central high and Brophy go North to AJ’s for their designer coffee drinks to help  them face afternoon Latin class.

And of course, AJs Central location is perfect for the most important cup of all.  The traditional “get acquainted” coffee date to check out the new Internet acquaintance. Does the trick every time!

“Self Reliant or Self Centered?”

By

Gerry Niskern

That’s just what today’s parents need, more ways for children to make their demands known.  Now they are teaching the pre-talkers as young as six months to use sign language to convey their wishes. “Baby Signs” classes are available throughout the valley.

Shouldn’t children growing up in our complex society start learning early on that sometimes you wait for wishes to be granted, or heaven forbid, refused?  Where will today’s children learn patience, a needed virtue in today’s world, if not at home? Kids need to adapt themselves to our demanding environment and it’s imperative we help them by not granting every request.

Our affluent society has spawned a few generations of self-centered offspring.

It is now the birthday party season. When school starts, the “keeping up with the Jones’s” also begins.

Parents are laying out a few hundred dollars to rent a room at a resort so 8 year olds can hang out in between trips to the water slides and restaurants.  Some are taking twenty ten-year-old buddies of the birthday boy to play a few games at the paint ball facility.  It’s difficult, and you might like to refuse, but come on, “ everyone’s parents lets them do that”: everyone’s parents that are way cooler than you, of course.

A young mother I know, who grew up in another culture, expressed bewilderment at the elaborate guest prizes. “We’ve rented the mandatory jumping cage, hired clowns and magicians, but what is it with these expensive guest prizes?” she asked. Another mother mentioned elaborate tea parties for little girls who are expected to arrive in fancy dress, presided over by a hired hostess.

DJ parties just for fun that cost several hundred are prevalent among the junior hi set. When they get older the stakes are raised. High school kids parents rent a couple of vans and take all their friends to Disneyland for the weekend, all expenses paid, of course.

It is only natural that parents want their children to have more than they had. When both parents are working and under a lot of stress, sometimes they have to skimp on time. They try to make up for it with giving. The Center for the New American Dream that promotes simplified living believe this results in kids who are too focused on material things. Who is going to draw the line and acknowledge that even extravagant birthday parties are just another way of raising very self-centered kids? The special memories that parents hope to create are instead creating a sense of entitlement. The message children often get is that acquiring more will make them happy.

Of course, we all know that the commercialism that permeates our children’s world is very hard to control. Madison Avenue used to try to impress parents; now they have moved directly to kid marketing, leaving Mom out of it. Product images are everywhere on TV, not just commercials but with direct tie-in to shows.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is on record as saying it “believes advertising directed toward children is deceptive and exploits children under age 8”.

If you receive everything you want at age 9 or 10, how do you handle future disappointments in relationships and the workplace?

Most young parents would like to break the cycle and get back to simpler times, but who has the courage to go first? Could they begin with the sign for NO that parents could use and teach the pre-talkers?

Funny thing happened on the way to Surgery

By

Gerry Niskern

When I asked my PC doctor if he thought I was too old for knee surgery, he answered. “Oh I think you would do fine. You are a young 85!” Those are what is known as  “famous last words.”

You see, for quite a while I had had a left knee that was killing me every time Iwalked a little more than usual. I wanted to have knee replacement and get on with my life.

I got a referral for a knee surgeon who was supposed to be “the best” in the valley. What didn’t realize was that lot’s of other issues can occur after surgery; but I was about to find out.

On the day of scheduled surgery I was in the pre-op room after having a spinal block when they came in and announced that the AC wasn’t acting right in the operating room and we would have to reschedule for the next week. OK, that was fine, but guess what, I couldn’t move for eight hours until the feeling came back into my legs and other essential parts.

After making new arrangements for family members to help, since it was summer vacation time, I returned a week later. Afterwards I found out that I didn’t have the normal Aqua style bandage on the stitches that can be showered with, I was informed that I had the old style dressing that had to  be changed twice a day and by the way, “when we ripped off some tape in the operating room we ripped off a chunk of skin, so that has to be dealt  with separately!

I was expecting to be out and about in two weeks like my other knee surgery, but nobody told me that twelve years makes a big difference! I was walking fine for a couple of days and then I developed a PINCHED NERVE in my back and couldn’t move without stabbing pain. After accepting the generous help of family and close friends, I realized that I couldn’t impose on them forever and I turned to an agency for round the clock help. Let me just say here that some of the ladies were very good, and some were very bad!

During the month of August I had a trip to Emergency for painful stomach that evidently couldn’t take all the stress and new medications. The following day I had a trip to the emergency again with a new, very strange pain gripping my chest that I thought was a heart attack. The 6 or 7 Paramedics stood watching while a young member of their team tried to insert a needle into my arm. I looked around in time to see blood spurting across my bed. Nice to know this is how the new kid get to practice! The heart was fine, but the stomach doctor wants more tests!

After a Cat scan for the stomach in the hospital they discovered that I also have a Compression Fracture in my back. No one knows where I got it. Couldn’t possibly be when they pick you up to do the Cat scan and PLOP you down. So now I’m told to take it even easier than I was.

Did I mention that I had a couple of emergency visits from the plumber with everything backing up in the shower , toilet and washer.

So can we all agree? The next time  someone mentions Surgery, let’s all get together and NOT GO!