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Monday, March 10, 2008

Grandma Taught Me To Take It Like A Cowboy


Grandma taught me many things in my life. An amazing woman, she was. Truly not once did I ever hear her speak ill of someone else. No negative. No bad attitudes. No nothing. She was amazing. She also taught me how to take my coffee like a man. A cowboy, to be exact. We'd occasionally spend the night with her. She'd wrap her newly-done hairdo up in toilet paper, pin the paper in with bobby pins, and put her head down on her silky smooth pillowcase that was supposed to keep her hair from getting messed up at night. In the morning, she'd fire up the wood stove in the kitchen (she never lived in a house with central heating) and make us Cowboy Coffee. I had no idea what it was. Except that it was loaded with sugar and milk. I think it was evaporated milk or condensed milk or something. Sweet and milky, it was. And it was served in a little yellow plastic cup with a cowboy on the back of a horse on the side of it. The handle on the cup was formed out of the cowboy's lasso. And that's how I came to drink my coffee with milk and sugar. How do you like yours? Black? White? Sweet?


This being a new parent has taken a serious toll on my blog reading and surfing the internet free time. I've definitely had to revamp my timing, posting time frame, etc.

27 comments:

Java said...

Black, fresh, and not too strong. That way when I spill it, there won't be a sugar-sticky residue or any dairy to sour. Also, it just tastes better black. The way coffee is supposed to be.

LeLo said...

Love this story. And as for being a new parent? More pictures please! And YES, I do believe we need to do a maltipoo-meet-up. Wink loves meeting other maltipoos! Warning though: she humps them. Just letting you know ahead of time.

Breenlantern said...

OK, that post was nothing like what the title implied...LOL.I'd love to sip cowboy coffee with you some day...or play other cowboy games :-)

Stacey said...

Started drinking coffee when I started waiting tables... no, actually it was when I started dating a co-worker. We'd do late-night bar inventory, and drink coffee before we'd leave to go hear some music.

It was an acquired taste, hence the milk and sugar. I'm a bit of a coffee-fiend now, thanks M*.

dit said...

a little sugar and a little cream, a little sweet and a little bitter. Sorta like life I guess. lol

Great post.

"W" said...

I do likes me some cream! To this day my granny wraps her hair with clips and toilet paper. I thought it was a hoot in my younger days.

Dave2 said...

I don't like coffee... black, white, sweet, or otherwise.

Cherish your time with the new baby... before you know it, they'll be all grown up and moving out!

Anonymous said...

It must be grandma month on the blogs! I posted about mine, Howard posted about his, my friends JT & Jen both posted about theirs and now you... Weirdness!

I like my coffee black. When I started drinking it in high school my dad said I had to drink it black or not at all. I've never really gotten a taste for milk and sugar in my coffee.

Laurie said...

I love mine black! When I get a
wild hair up my nose then I like
it with flavored creamers. But,
fresh ground and black is always
the top.

tornwordo said...

Just black and strong for me. And if you give me decaf, I may kill you, lol.

Anonymous said...

I am surprised that no one has chimed in with that old one-liner from Airplane, and I will continue that.

One sugar and some half-n-half. If I can only chose one of the two, I'd prefer to skip the sugar.

And decaf should be outlawed (though to be honest, at home I switched to 1/2 caff a little over a year ago).

Lemuel said...

I first started drinking the devil's brew when I was in jr hi. Then I drank it with (whole) milk and sugar. As an adult I weened myself to the world of black. Then I met D-, and he got me to drink it with half and half. Once I started down that road to degradation, it was not long until I had to have my daily fix of amaretto creamer! :)

As for parenting, ah yes! There are the walks, the clean up, the tricks, the feeding, not to mention the evenings spent on the couch snuggling.

Billy said...

Mine is with Milk (2% low fat) and no sugar - and strong!

Hubby is with 3 sweeteners (use to be sugar, but he's diabetic) and milk - weak coffee. This is the reason we have two coffee makers in our kitchen.

Our baby is also virtually grown up and I missed it all with all my travels. Enjoy them while they young... (Keep them thoughts clean now!)

RAD said...

My Granny introduced me to coffee as well....I miss her so...She loaded it up with milk and sugar since I was a lad...So I enjoy my cup of joe this way- I like it it some milk and a few sugars.....

Ur-spo said...

hohoho
my gran taught me how to drink tea, rather. To this day it is the drink of choice.
no nasty coffee for me thankyou!

Sh@ney said...

We were never allowed caffiene...I was made to drink 'FRESH' cows milk...may as well have sucked on the utter!
Suprisingly I still love my moo juice (from the bottle & chilled of course). Only now I can add a coffee & sweetner!

Cooper said...

I take it like a cowboy, too ... double-double ... (double cream, double sugar). Note, cowboys never ever drink decaf.

bridgeout said...

Well, someone once observed of the way I made my coffee that I liked it the same as I liked my lady: "hot, sweet, and blonde"... I said "Yeh, I guess so!" ;-)

TED said...

Coffee: ugh. I mostly only drink it during tax season, and then I take the elevator downstairs and it's quad venti mocha, or, if I'm feeling virtuous, quad venti skim no-whip mocha. One of those at 4 in the afternoon will keep you going until it's time to leave the office at 11.

Every once in a while I might feel the need for some coffee at home, but my partner uses an old electric percolator that I think he stole from Donna Reed. I bought him a French press, but he won't use it. The coffee isn't bitter enough, apparently.

Will said...

It depends on whether I'm in Starbucks or not. Usually, it's a little half and half and one sugar. If it's Starbucks, I need a fair amount of half and half and a lot of sugar.

dpaste said...

I don't drink coffee.

But I like the smell.

TJ said...

I don't drink coffee. I've tried it in many variations, cream & sugar, latte, various flavors but in the end at the core they all taste like coffee, which I know is th]e point hence the reason I don't like it. I love making coffee for people. I love the smell of freshly roasting coffee beans and a fresh brewing pot, but I just can not drink the stuff. I think it stems from when I was like 4 and my dad took my brother and I ice fishing at my grandparents farm. The only thing my dad would bring to drink and to warm us u would be a thermos full of coffee w/milk no sugar. As a 4 year old all I wanted was hot chocolate and to make snow angels not fishing and cofee, Anyway, I guess I'm scared for life now.

Anonymous said...

I LIVE on coffee, but almost never enough time to drink it... But I like it hot, strong and black.
Cheers, Lewis!

WAT said...

I don't like coffee...SO THERE! Love the smell though. Mmmmmmmm...

Mason is too cute and worth parenting. AW LIL PUPPY!

I remember my grandmother well. She was very influential and quite a character. R.I.P.

Trailhead said...

Toilet paper. Grandma never did that, but I do remember her getting her hair done exactly twice a week, and carefully tucking a shower cap around her hair before bathing.

I'd like a little coffee with my cream, please.

Anonymous said...

Coimbra, April 23, 1975.
"A few days ago, during the homily of Sunday Mass in a parish church in rural surroundings, the priest spoke to his parishioners about the forthcoming elections for the Constituent Assembly. Launched hand of the parabola to be better understood and told them:

-- "My dear brothers in Christ: suppose that one of you is owner of a dairy cow; if socialism wins, the brother takes the cow, but will have to give the milk to the party, if the communism wins, we ill stand without the milk and without. cow. " "

Alan Bennett Ilagan said...

Love this post too! Grandmothers are pretty wondrous. Sounds like we had good ones.