AN AFFINITY FOR COFFEE MUGS

"UM....WELL.....SO I COLLECT 'EM.....IS THAT BAD?"

The standard line to make the above question

a joke, is: "Ah, come with me to my attic---I

have twelve hundred on shelves!" (Not so.)

Yes, if I am quirky like pundits say all people 

are, I reckon it is my penchant for coffee mugs.

You know, BE thinks we have enough.

But guess what. that day, maybe twenty years

ago, when good old Baldridge Hardware was

still open, down on Indian School Road---I was

in there buying some faucet "warshers" and other

man-stuff, when I spotted the blue coffee cup

pictured above...cool white designs of various 

kinds were carved into the slick blue finish.

I stifled myself as best I could but still walked out

of there with four! They are a neat medium size.

BR cottoned onto those blue ones and they are

now her favorites. I like 'em too.

My most-favorite cups are the "NICKEL COFFEE

CUPS" sold by WHATABURGER in the 80's. There

was one about a block from our office (during my

second career) over on Lomas. Memory says you

paid 80 cents for coffee in one of those cups,

pictured above, and thereafter for life you could

pay a nickel and give 'em your special cup...and

they would fill it!

Over time, I accumulated six of them. BE dropped 

ONE.  We have five left. I like them because of the

handle...note the finger positions.  It's what I drink

from almost every morning.

Note the third picture above---a real genuine Texas

Longhorn coffee cup in burnt orange. Now THAT

IS a good cup. And being a Texas boy, I've always

liked the Longhorns...and burnt orange.

One day in the late 90's, I was headed down on

Carlisle on some business and realized I'd need

to eat lunch down there somewhere...and 

remembered there was a WHATABURGER 

near Carlisle and Menaul.

Thus I left the house with one of my WB cups.

And went into the place and ordered a burger. I

asked for my FIVE CENT cup to be filled. This

created great distress. The surprised waitress

showed my special WB cup to the manager. 

They jawed awhile and according to her, he 

said; "Charge him a nickel." He had hardly been

born when I bought that cup!

After that I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

We've got some neat Southwestern dishes with

very colorful mugs...but in micro-waving our food 

or coffee, most of the heat goes into the dish...and

who knows---is lead released?

Couple of decades ago we had some dear friends

from Pennsylvania, who returned east every 

summer. They knew I liked unusual coffee cups

and came back every year with one or two. 

It was fun. They brought some weird mugs to us.

I always paid them, over their objections, as they

were living on a retirement income.

An interesting thing is that they loved stopping

for a day in Newcastle---"the hot dog capital of

 the world," (which he knew of from his youthful

days) where he loaded up good and proper on NC

hot dogs.

He always brought us.a bottle of special Newcastle 

"hot dog" sauce.

Alas, our cup cabinet got full, as well as my little

shelf in "the cozy attic," and we had to quit

collecting coffee cups.

In this great life, it seems, that all things---even

good things---must come to an end. But we've 

got enough...

***************

BY MIL

10/21/16