The Starbucks on Glade
“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time”
I know it seems silly, but I have always been a person that gets attached to places. So when, today, I saw that the Starbucks on Glade had been one more casualty to a lagging economy, I was pretty stricken.
This should be a triumph. All those years of railing against mass marketed businesses, and here falls the big conglomerate to the unique and quality local business, Buen Giornos. Down with corporate coffee! Right?
Everyone stays it, but this starbucks was different. I mean it wasn’t really-it was the same design, same interior, same product, but this one had age. I got my first frappacino there a decade ago. This place is the reason I drink coffee. How many of my subsequent life memories involved a coffee house or a cup of coffee? Without that introductory cup, without “coffee training wheels,” where would I be now?
Of course this is sentimental. Still, so many of the best memories of my life have been while drinking coffee. So many of the worst times of my life have been mitigated by drinking coffee. When I’m happy and around my friends, I usually have a cup of coffee. When I’m sad, coffee cheers me up. I drink it when I wake up, when I watch movies, when I go out, when I read, when I write, during class, at work, on vacation, etc, etc, etc.
Before I was an adult, free to explore and wander and find my favorite haunts, the starbucks on glade was all there was. It was in walking distance of the school, it was in walking distance of home (if I was ambitious), all my similarly restricted friends knew it, it was the obvious place to go. I’ve spent, without any exaggeration, ten thousand dollars at that place, at least. I also don’t feel it's an exaggeration to say that most of my good memories from high school are connected to that place.
So, to me, this is the end of an era. I never looked back at the high school, my house there was sold years ago, everyone has moved away--or if they haven't, they are living completely different lives--the starbucks was the last connecting link. I can’t go home, and I have to start facing forward. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to that part of grapevine, or grapevine at all really. Good Riddance.
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time”
I know it seems silly, but I have always been a person that gets attached to places. So when, today, I saw that the Starbucks on Glade had been one more casualty to a lagging economy, I was pretty stricken.
This should be a triumph. All those years of railing against mass marketed businesses, and here falls the big conglomerate to the unique and quality local business, Buen Giornos. Down with corporate coffee! Right?
Everyone stays it, but this starbucks was different. I mean it wasn’t really-it was the same design, same interior, same product, but this one had age. I got my first frappacino there a decade ago. This place is the reason I drink coffee. How many of my subsequent life memories involved a coffee house or a cup of coffee? Without that introductory cup, without “coffee training wheels,” where would I be now?
Of course this is sentimental. Still, so many of the best memories of my life have been while drinking coffee. So many of the worst times of my life have been mitigated by drinking coffee. When I’m happy and around my friends, I usually have a cup of coffee. When I’m sad, coffee cheers me up. I drink it when I wake up, when I watch movies, when I go out, when I read, when I write, during class, at work, on vacation, etc, etc, etc.
Before I was an adult, free to explore and wander and find my favorite haunts, the starbucks on glade was all there was. It was in walking distance of the school, it was in walking distance of home (if I was ambitious), all my similarly restricted friends knew it, it was the obvious place to go. I’ve spent, without any exaggeration, ten thousand dollars at that place, at least. I also don’t feel it's an exaggeration to say that most of my good memories from high school are connected to that place.
So, to me, this is the end of an era. I never looked back at the high school, my house there was sold years ago, everyone has moved away--or if they haven't, they are living completely different lives--the starbucks was the last connecting link. I can’t go home, and I have to start facing forward. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to that part of grapevine, or grapevine at all really. Good Riddance.