You Can Go Home Again

Look familiar? It should. I took the shot this morning from virtually the same spot where I used to sit before Hattie's Cafe closed some months back. Hattie's--the place where I'd had my morning coffee for a while. Hattie's had replaced Saywell's, where I'd gone just about every morning for years.

The new place is called the Open Door Coffee Co. (they opened yesterday--Wed.--but I didn't hear about it until I'd already had my Morning Joe elsewhere), so today (Thurs.) was my first day. I know the people who own and run the place, so I was comfortable right away--and the coffee was great.

The picture shows Aurora Street in the background (a car is visible). Joyce and I lived at 120 Aurora Street from 1981-1990 (when we moved to ... Aurora). I played against Aurora High School in basketball (I was one of the mighty Hiram Huskies, 1958-62); I commenced my teaching career (fall 1966) at the Aurora Middle School (later, Harmon Middle School). I was living in Aurora in the summer of 1969 when I met Joyce in a grad school class at Kent State. Joyce's mother--suffering profoundly from Alzheimer's--lived for some years at Aurora's Anna Maria nursing home. Aurora. Goddess of Dawn. Appropriate.

The street immediately to my left is Clinton Street. I voted for Bill twice. (Nuff said: Don't want to alienate my friends on the other side.) Running from left to right (or right to left, depending on how you look) is Main Street (Route 91). When we returned to Ohio in the fall of 1979 (we'd been at Lake Forest College in Illinois for a year), we both taught at Western Reserve Academy and lived, that first year, at 306 N. Main. Our wonderful friends, Bill and Pat Eldredge, lived right down the street. (Coincidence: We're having dinner with them tonight to celebrate their daughter's birthday; Joyce taught her at WRA back in the 1980s.)

Also on Main Street: the Learned Owl book store (where I've spent a fortune). Starbucks (ditto). LifeCenterPlus (health club--ditto). Zeppe's pizza (ditto). Numerous other places (ditto).

sadly, not my copy!

So today, I did go home again (Thomas Wolfe's novel notwithstanding)--in so many ways. I plan to sit there every morning, having good coffee, doing my Kirkus reading, catching up on Facebook, wearing out my welcome. I hope many other folks in the area give it a whirl, too. I want Open Door to be there for a long, long, long time.

Just one thing, though: Stay out of "my" chair!