JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee

Oh, the journey coffee has had in America during my lifetime! My parents were like most adults in the 1950s and 1960s. Coffee drinkers. Daddy would make a pot of coffee upon arising before daylight. He’d pour himself a cup and that would start a day of coffee drinking. He liked it hot and black. Mama was much less so, but she also drank coffee.

In the crowd my parents ran in – the Church crowd – there was no imbibing of liquor. Not whiskey. Not beer. Tea was fine and often used for supper meals which occurred around 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. This was when the entire family all sat down and had dinner together. But first we bowed our heads and Daddy said the prayer where we thanked God for our meal and all we had.

There was a song in those days that a crooner of the era sang, and as always I had to pretend to be him and perform while singing along with him on the TV or radio. The song was written in 1932 and was a big band favorite. The versions I sang came in the 1950s.

“Let’s have another cup of coffee. Let’s have another piece of pie!”

Now, kids did not drink coffee back then. Shut your mouth! That was an adult drink, often the only one at parties where dominoes were played, as many adults (mostly men) smoked their cigarettes as groups of four played Forty-Two. If you were part of the extended Bridges or Capps family in Angelina County in the 1950s or 1960s, you can hear the sound of those bones being shuffled and recall the wafting of cigarette smoke in the air.

Kids better not come running through the area where adults were playing Forty-Two and bump one of the cardboard tables and knock dominoes over, either. That might be a “whupping” offense.

The only sure fire “whupping offense” however was disobeying the standard caution and demand “DON’T JUMP ON THE BEDS!” Back then every bed had a mattress on top of box springs which were on top of wooden slats which supported the box springs. They were fairly thin pieces of wood holding up the bed. They could do their job admirably UNLESS you jumped up and down on the bed.

Invariably some kids would get in some back bedroom and start jumping on the bed. There might be as many as 5 or 6 kids doing this forbidden thing. Then a slat would break and a huge CRACK would echo down the hall to the area where parents were happily drinking coffee and playing dominoes.

The father of the house would stomp down the hallway with his heavy footsteps sending chills down the spine of terrified children. The Dad probably pulled his leather belt off with one smooth move and entered the bedroom ready to apply licks liberally. He might use it as a prop and not hit anyone, or he might do the tradition of swatting his son once or twice. The Fear of God having been imposed, kids would run outside to the order of the dad “you kids get outside!!”

Then Dad would return to the tables and Forty-Two would continue. Kids would live to annoy another day, and everyone would thank their lucky stars they didn’t feel the leather belt.

Those were the days, my friend. Before cable TV. Before Internet. Before when kids’ fun was whatever they made it. If you lived it, you know it.