The Old Man lifted a grinding, grunting percolator and poured oily black into a delicate cup. The cup didn’t go with the man, but my Grandmother had her preferences on their china — preferences, I learned, that were to be observed.
Still, the mismatch of the pair, the weathered Old Man sipping from the dainty, fragile cup, made me smile. The Old Man had grown up during the Great Depression. He’d left school to help run his family’s farm, taken a detour into the Navy and fought a World War, returned home and finished his education through a veterans’ program. He had helped build and wire the dams TVA put up in Tennessee, then put his welding skills to use throughout Mississippi. He’d raised bird dogs and catfish and pastured a mess of cows, but now he was sitting in his kitchen drinking coffee from a pink and white cup, pinching a handle not even one finger would fit through. He followed my gaze and read my mind.
“If you can avoid it,” he said, “don’t do the things you know will cause strife. Coffee tastes the same to me, whether it comes out of this cup or a solid mug, or a soup bowl, for that matter.”
“You wouldn’t want your friends to see you drinking out of that, though, I bet,” I said.
“And how would they do that?” he asked.
“Well, if you took it up to the welding shop …”
“I wouldn’t be allowed to take one of these cups to the welding shop, though,” he said. “If they wanted to see me drinking out of one of your Grandmother’s cups, they’d have to come to this kitchen. If, while they were here, they wanted coffee, well, they’d have to drink it out of one of your Grandmother’s cups or else do without.
“A whole lot of things are worse than drinking coffee out of this cup, doing without being the first to mind. You’ll probably find out one day that some arguments, maybe most of them, just aren’t worth having. I figured out a long time ago, I could be right, or I could be happy.”
It wasn’t hard to see which path he chose.
Kevin Tate is a freelance writer. Email him at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
