So I’ve decided to create a new segment on my award winning blog. I call it: last decade. Basically it shows something from last decade of significance. And here it is:
Now you may ask, what is this? I reply, “It’s a cake, good sir!” Not just any cake, it was THE cake which haunted our confectionary dreams and nightmares. You see, some time ago, a decade more or less, there was a cake that sat in a coffee shop known as the Coffee Trader. Before I frequented the Bean in Plymouth often and after the local joint known as Cup O Joe, which was hosted by the sweet gothic girl named Courtney that I marched in high school with, there was a local independent coffee joint known as the coffee trader. The Coffee Trader was your only hope of drinking coffee that was not from a chain in our whole city. Alas it was not to be and the place where the Coffee Trader stood is vacant to this day (somewhat similar in history to the Cafe once known as the Grand Cafe in Farmington).
Soooo… what the hell is the cake? The cake is this: a very giant carrot cake. So giant in fact, that it was said that no team of men could eat it. The idea was that if you could eat the cake, it was free. Or some such thing which I would foolishly partake in at Denny’s later as well as Mr. Zanskas when he poured his diet soda over it in disgust of his paltry pie eating efforts. The cake was a dare. It was a dare proffered by one Jim. No one knows what happened to Jim when the Coffee Trader closed. We never saw him again. But in kinder days, he was our barista. He didn’t call himself that because it’s kind of a douchebag thing to call yourself if you serve people coffee for a living. Jim, who drove a mustang?, was our coffee dude. He chatted us up and we came back. It was one of those local neighborhood things where you feel like a small town, even though your downtown was artifically created and precipitously everything in it went out of business until the bars came in. At any rate, Jim our coffee dude, would always prod us to take the challenge of the cake. This is the cake. We never took the challenge and now we never shall. Quite sad I know. Thanks for tuning in for episode 1 of “Last Decade: The Cake.”
4 Comments
October 10, 2008 at 1:01 am
I miss the Grand. Asa and Matt were our coffee dudes. Asa always served us; we had Mocha Asas instead of Mocha Joes. Matt always made us happy with his philosophical goodness (and his delicious baked goods). And Lance always let us in free on band nights. We could sneak through the kitchen because we were his “posse.”
I miss that coffee shop more than I miss many other things in my life. That shop was who we were. We were always there. IT was our hangout. I have never had a hangout quite like it.
October 12, 2008 at 3:42 pm
THE CAKE
Wow… my memory must be getting bad, because I forgot about that, as well. And I forgot about Jim.
Jim had some crazy stories. I don’t even remember what the deal was in terms of the Mustang, I just remember the Mustang being significant for some reason.
That coffee shop was like a silent protest. We’d go there to protest Starbucks. It’s kind of funny now, at least to me, how insignificant my choice of brand of coffee is. My dad even sells Starbucks because people request it. My last work actually bought Starbucks and I drank it “free” everyday!
I lost most of my pictures when my laptop was stolen. I had thought they were backed up. I might have them on a random hard drive somewhere. I guess I’ll have to check.
Yeah, our fake downtown. We laughed at it, but still frequented it. Where else was there to go? People out here sometimes know Novi for the 2nd City, and not shopping!
Hey, are you going to be back for Thanksgiving? I’m trying to figure out if I should take an extra day on either side… see people. Of course I might pad Christmas time with a few days so I can hang out some more. It sucks having a whole 10 days of vacation a year.
October 13, 2008 at 1:00 am
The Cup of Joe shop turned into an armed forces recruitment center. Oh, the irony of the symbol of hipster slackerdom turning into a army recruitment center. The Grand was another neat cafe though a little ways away for us Novinians.
I’ll be back in town for Thanksgiving. I’ll be around for about a week and a half. I’ll also be in town for Christmas (almost a month). Either way, I hope to see you then. I suppose Z will probably be headed down to tennersee.
October 14, 2008 at 1:29 am
You might be surprised how many slackers join the armed forces craving structure!