Last Sarurday Coffee Morning

Sheila, Sylvia, and I (Faye, too, but she's not here this year) prepare coffee for the park every Saturday morning in February and today is our last kick at the cat. We've started getting out the huge urns on Friday night after Bingo so all that's needed to do on Saturday morning is to turn them on at 7:15 A.M. and put out the toasters (for bagels), sugars, creamers, stir sticks, napkins, etc. Sheila and I take turns picking up the donuts. Today is my turn to plug in the coffee urns.

I don't like going over to an empty and dark clubhouse because I'm afraid I'll run into a cockroach. Remember that this is Florida and, even though the clubhouse is sprayed regularly, cockroaches are wily and ever present creatures.

Residents will start filling the clubhouse around 8 A.M. even though the coffee isn't put out till 8:30. It's a nice meeting place to come down and talk with your neighbors. Bagels, jam, butter, and cream cheese is put out slightly early so that people can prepare their bagel their way. We start filling the carafes at 8:30 with both regular and decaf coffee and they're quickly picked up and taken to a table. The noise level of many conversations fill the room along with the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Then we fill huge platters with 8-10 dozen donuts and carry them to the buffet tables at 9 A.M. on the dot. There are "donation" cans set out for both bagels and donuts and most of our residents slip in a dollar each. A few are cheap and take what they want for nothing.

When the activities panel starts giving their announcements, we take the leftover donuts around to the tables to try to get rid of them and don't have any problems. Then it's clean up time and we are a well oiled machine. We wash, clean, and put away in no time at all and then take the dirty dish cloths and towels home to put in our own laundry.

This is our last Saturday coffee morning forever. We've done it for 6 years and decided to pack it in. Sylvia might not be here next year, both Faye and Sheila are not positive they'll be able to come, and I'm not doing it with a new group.

Changes. There's nothing we can do about them. Right now it's light enough outside for me to head over to the clubhouse for my last shift.