Church street cafe

10/24/2017

Church Street Cafe used to be a rocking place filled with cool, hip artist types. Groups played cards and games and did crosswords and puzzles surrounded by exposed brick walls on one side. The strong black coffee flowed. the chattering and laughter of silly but pretty girls never languished. The music was always good. Sometimes a song played you had never heard before, and it was new and likable like the boy over there--kind of lanky and tall and skinny--sitting in the leather chair by the window you so wanted to kiss all consumingly.

The artwork in the Cafe was always provocative by a local artist. Exhibitions changed monthly. The internet was fast and not dreadfully slow like the one we had at home on Dolores Street or the one we couldn’t afford on Dolores Street after richer days at Bank of America and Charles Schwab and Accenture daytime jobs ended.

People ate pastries and croissants and salads and sipped coffee and tea and read books. Serious geeks stared at laptops and dudes with long hair and peculiar mannerisms and gals that could be boys with skateboards smoked cigarettes outside on the street at small iron tables before a new state law went into effect and stopped that. Now, no one smokes there anymore.

Last night cafe was a different world. It was dark with dim lights and duller than Dullsville without life save the clerk who made me laugh when he told an unexpected joke. The few people gathered worked on their laptops and never looked up or your way. There were no good-looking people to watch and flirt with and snap pictures and the music playing was 1980s pop, “Angel” by Madonna.

There was artwork by an artist whose name I glanced in the corner when I was doctoring up my coffee with half & half and sugar and cinnamon.

The coffee was still a good to the last drop.

The internet was slower, however, than using your cell phone after all the data has been used up and, using it, was even faster than the internet at Cafe.

I got nothing done. My upload repeated and eventually timed out. After three failed attempts I shut down and left for Haight-Ashbury after I bought a bottle of wine.

Oh, congratulations to The Piano Man-Billy Joel-who became father for a third time to another girl. Joel and wife Alexis Roderick welcomed daughter Remy Anne on Sunday, 22, October, which makes Remy Anne a Scorpio-the cream of the crop-like us...