Back to the Future

When you stop going somewhere you used to go all the time, then return after fifteen or more month, it is nice to know that somethings have still not changed. 


I used to practically live at Daybreak Coffee on 19th & Quaker in Lubbock, Texas.  I went there to hangout with friends, to meet customers, to teach crochet classes, to work on projects, and so on. The coffee was bad, but the people were good and I could always get tea if the coffee was too badly burnt.

I stopped coming in regularly just over two years ago, and I haven't been back to spend any real time in over fifteen months. Not that anything really changed, just that they made some choices I didn't like, we moved, I found a much better coffee place, and I didn't need them anymore... Now, my new coffee place is closed, I needed somewhere that I could focus on work, and I happened to be driving past. 


I am always nervous about going back to some place I used to love, anxious that it will be totally different.  This coffee shop changed names and their menu... I was afraid that everything would be all new, but as I walked in, I saw that nothing much had changed.

The staff is the same, the regulars still know my name and ask how and where I've been. The same wonderful songs play on over the speakers and my regular table was open and waiting. There is some new art work on the walls (but that is an improvement).  There are a few new drinks on the menu board.  The prices are slightly higher, but that is to be expected.  Everything else seems the same.

The med students are still muttering under their breath with books piled high in front of them as the feverishly check notes and type away on their computers.  The law students are still grouped in several booths along a the wall, arguing and discussing cases while their books and notes sit forgotten, topped now with coffee cups and bagel plates.  The aging farmer turned preacher still sits quietly sipping his black coffee and reading his worn Bible. He smiles at me as I walk past and I remember the day he and I sat and talked scripture for hours. The likes of the Decemberists and the Shins still serenade us all from the speakers and the coffee is still burnt. 

It feels comforting and unsettling all at once, as if time has traveled backward or simply stood still...

I spend more time than I like to admit reminiscing, but when you actually walk into the past, you aren't prepared for it. So, as I choke down my bitter coffee and contemplate the universe this morning, I wonder how many places on earth there are like this, where time stands still and people who have moved on can walk back in years later and find that time has not moved on, that something familiar has been preserved, and that they can suddenly feel unsettlingly like they have walked back in time... back into their past...  Yet, perhaps it is so unsettling because you feel so comfortable here, like you are coming back home.