Urspo goes to Dunkin Donuts.

A dilemma arose today when I forgot my “Mesa keys” at the Phoenix office. If I waited at home until a time when someone would arrive at said office to let me in, I would have been in ‘rush hour traffic’;  if I left at the usual time I would beat traffic but stand for an hour, feeling like Henry IV waiting for Gregory’s pardon.  I chose the latter. I figured I could sit in the local Dunkin Donuts until opening time. I ordered a coffee (for they had no proper tea) and a bagel, and then I sat down to observe the comings and goings of DDD. ** I am not one normally to patronize coffee shops. I felt like Margaret Mead among the Bantus, observing tribal behavior.

Once upon a time (OR so I read) coffee shops were a social place where people gathered to talk about the news and gossip. For young Spo-fans, let me explain: it was a sort of ‘chat room’.  Today I saw a lot of people seemingly in chat rooms but not with each other. There was a handful of people all silent and staring into their individual laptops and cellphones; there was no interactions. There was silence, the sort that accompanies people who have withdrawn into themselves.

The silence was broken by a couple of antediluvians who sat in corner chairs. Although they were the only ones talking every word could be heard in the silence of the techno-zombies.  And goodness gracious, did they talk. Both men spoke continuously, over each other, and without pause. Their thought flow reminded me of something out of Joyce, but not nearly as interesting. Trying not to listen to the tedium only drew me into it more. I hoped they would discuss affairs of the day, but it was a disappointment. Mostly they complained; a catalog of remonstrances about anything and everything.  I suppose the techno-zombies heard it too but they were too absorbed (or less distraction).

I don’t know if what I encountered today was typical and captures the urtext of a coffee shop dining. I should go back again for more data.

Perhaps the two garrulous gallants will still be there, with their bottomless cups and conversations.

** Dunkin Donuts Diners.