By Harold Brummett
Denmark Star Route

Watching TV westerns the other day it dawned on me that the two most popular drinks in the old west had to be whisky and coffee.

I have no business with the hard stuff, but do like coffee. It all started as a child with a little coffee in my milk. Born in the 50’s and growing up in the 60’s like the old west, everyone drank coffee.

My Aunt Ethel and Uncle Kirk drank a lot of instant coffee. I never was a fan of instant but had occasion to drink instant coffee packets in the old C rations and later MRE’s. (If you don’t know what an MRE is that’s ok, just ask a veteran). Some of the best coffee I ever had was in the field in a cold rain. Whenever you went to take a sip, the rain from your helmet would dribble water into the metal cup. It was warm and the caffeine jolted the senses.

My dad would make coffee every morning and there seemed to be a pot on the stove all day. Even in the hottest summer Dad would come in for the noon meal and have a hot cup of coffee. Dad took a stovetop percolator, gutted it and used it to make the coffee. He would fill the coffee pot three-fourths of the way full of water, bring it to a boil then using his palm as a measuring device and parcel out three handfuls of grounds into the boiling water.

The heat then turned down and just before serving, he would sprinkle in a little cool water to drive the grounds to the bottom. This was the coffee that was in my milk and later a little milk in my coffee. When going into service I was warned about strong Army coffee but overall it was a little weak compared to what I was used to.

Mornings are best for coffee. When dad lived with me, he would set up the coffee and usually had it going by the time I got up. The old gutted percolator had disappeared and we used a drip coffee maker. It was adequate. It was a comfort for us to sit and drink together.

Sometimes I would find him on the porch, joining him we would sit and talk. Sometimes we would just sit quietly watching the cows, horses, guineas and wildlife go through their morning rituals as we went through ours. The morning coffee is a solo affair now, hot coffee and memories until others in the house start to stir.

Nights when sleep eludes or mornings that come earlier than usual coffee is a comfort. Coffee, supposedly a stimulant, for me calms the thoughts and relaxes the body. Matt Dillon and Festus had it right, whisky for celebrating at the Long Branch but coffee for conversation, warming a cold night or greeting a new day.