Thursday, January 7, 2010

Saying Goodbye To The Coffee Pot



Passing by this landmark today on the way to visit my Mom, I couldn't help but get a lump in my throat. It recently closed it's doors for good. Here's a local newspaper article about it.








Like so many others that grew up in this part of Maine, a tradition was to pick up a Coffee Pot sandwich, and head to nearby Cascade Park for an impromptu picnic. Well, in the summer anyway.




Generations of families have grown up on this sandwich, and yet the memory of enjoying them together, seems even more significant than the actual sandwich itself. Much like the summer day a couple years ago when I ran into my uncle while standing in line waiting for a Coffee Pot. For perspective, we live 80 miles apart. Although unplanned, we instinctively knew our chance meeting called for a trip to Cascade Park together. Henri captured a couple memories of that day for us.





My uncle, never missing an opportunity to tease me, was checking to see if I missed smoking, a habit I had quit 20 years prior.



He already knew I didn't. But today, driving past The Coffee Pot, I recognized it, as something I will always miss. And, they didn't even serve coffee.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

I haven't been able to even drive by. I cried. I actually cried when I found out. The last time I was in there was about eight weeks ago and there were these two men behind me in line. They didn't know each other but they started talking about the sandwich and Skip and they introduced themselves to each other and come to find out one of them was a painter and the other needed some painting done and they exchanged phone numbers and I thought then how cool that was. Things like that don't happen at McDonalds or Subway. It will be so truly missed.

Now if they close down Pat's(Orono, not the franchises) and the Governor's then we might as well just give right up.

Ok, I'm done, my blood pressure's rising.

Smiles anyway,
Lisa

Kelly said...

Being from away, I never went to the Coffee Pot. I drove by it every night going to work but it was already closed by that time in the evening. Several people said that it wasnt so much the sandwiches as the man who ran it for so many years. Now Governors could close tomorrow and I would not greive. Sorry folks but that is just bad food. Horribly bad food that they can repeat on the 3 occasions that I ate there.
Kelly

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Sad to see things like this go. The memories are sweet though.