I remember the first time I visited a Starbucks.
I must have been 16, so it was about 25 years ago.
It was the old location at University and Carroll Boulevard in Denton.
I had heard of the place, but I was under the impression that it was a little too high class for me.
I started drinking coffee earlier in life than I probably should have. I’d drink it in the mornings with my grandfather. He passed away when I was 14.
But I had never had a latte or a cappuccino. I didn’t know what those words meant. I was accustomed to Folgers in a red can.
Nonetheless, we heard Starbucks was the place, so a friend and I stopped in one night.
There was no drive-thru window. The shop had plenty of seating both inside and out.
Patrons were encouraged to sit and mingle and enjoy each other along with their chosen brew.
We did just that.
My friend and I were both theatre students, musicians, performers— all around hams— so we sat outside with our coffee and, before long, we were making up an improv comedy act for anyone who would listen.
Until this day, those folks probably think we really were fighting over the same girl.
We laid it on pretty good and got louder and more obnoxious as we went. We enjoyed making a satirical scene.
Years later, Jennifer and I enjoyed one of our first dates at a Starbucks. It was one of the McKinney locations. We sat and sipped and chatted for hours.
I used to start my day at the Starbucks in Gainesville back when I was splitting time between the newspaper offices in Muenster and Whitesboro.
I could get a cup of coffee and a copy of that morning’s New York Times.
The baristas knew my name and had my order going before I got to the counter.
Our kids are Starbucks fans too though only one of the four has taken after her old man and picked up a coffee habit as a pre-teen.
The other three enjoy the non-coffee options.
When I first started teaching at Tarleton, I’d meet a mentor of mine at a Starbucks off I-20 in Fort Worth to swap classroom material and lesson plan ideas.
We’d sit and visit. I’d pick his brain and take notes.
The first Starbucks store opened in 1971. Ten years later, a young New Yorker name Howard Schultz happened into the Seattle location.
He was captivated, joined the company and set out to take the brand worldwide.
He did just that.
Today there are more than 30,000 Starbucks locations in 84 countries across the globe.
Schultz’s vision was to offer premium coffee and teas and a place for community to gather.
It was that sense of community that lured a pair of teenage improv actors 25 years ago.
It has been the location of countless first dates, mentorship sessions and newspaper readings.
Late last week, we were in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A post-Christmas getaway culminated Friday night with a movie, shopping and (of course) a cup of coffee
We know the town well, so we pulled into a Starbucks location we last visited in early August, but this time it was different.
The store has been essentially cut in half, or maybe it is even a third its previous size. There was no seating and no public restroom.
The sign on the door said “pick-up” and that’s essentially all it was— a pick-up location.
We walked in and ordered at the register though we were the only folks with that idea.
Everyone else was ordering on their mobile app or at the drive-thru window.
Our plans to sit and visit as a family over caffeine and sugar changed. We took the drinks back to the car and had to find a restroom elsewhere.
