Frozen Air

by Katy Copley
(Aliso Viejo, CA, USA)

My hometown, Grand Prairie, Texas was a blue collar town of about 30,000 people in the 50's and 60's. We had only one junior high school and one high school.

There weren't any real restaurants there then, only cafes and coffee shops which were more like truck stops. My mom worked in one of them. I can still remember visiting her in the cafe and seeing her in her white starched uniform, jet black hair, and broad, loving smile. Her smile was always a gift. The aroma of coffee permeated the air and wrapped around us like a warm cocoon. These moments were special to me because my brothers, sisters and I were able to spend very few hours with our mom; she worked many long hours to ensure that we had food, clothes and a roof over our heads. The aroma of coffee all these years later still reminds me of those moments.

The enormous appeal that coffee house enjoys today may owe at least some of their popularity to the childhood memories of the many others also.

There is just something special, even magical about the smell of fresh brewed coffee that brings back memories of frosty mornings, suppers around the family dinner table, or evenings around a backyard fire roasting marshmallows.