I can distinctly remember the first time I learned to like the taste of coffee.
In the fall of 1976 I’d wrecked my 1972 Gran Torino, and was car less for a few months.
This meant that to travel from college in Kansas City to Humansville (which was the center of all known life in the universe) I had to either bum rides or take the Continental Trailways bus.
There was another Humansville boy named Mark Miller who one cold November Friday let me ride in his Firebird home, but just South of Harrisonville he lost control on the ice and we slid into the median. I was able to push him and we got back on the road, but he’d lost his taste for the adventure and we drove back to the dormitory.
I had two uncles who lived in Kansas City, and my Uncle Ben was the stereotype of a semi truck driver, and a call to my Aunt Mildred (my mother’s sister) was all it took to get me a trip South with Uncle Ben after he returned from his run to St. Joesph.
He came by the dorm to pick me up, and his plan was to drive East on I-70 to go down Highway 13, and he had a big half gallon thermos of Aunt Mildred’s black coffee.
With the CB in his pickup blaring, and Uncle Ben telling stories of the D Day Invasion, I learned to drink black coffee that evening.
Mark Miller became a pharmacist and lived in an exclusive neighborhood of town homes in Tulsa Oklahoma, about 35 years later.
A deranged man, rammed his vehicle into a neighbors town home, and left the scene. While she was being sheltered by Mark at his town home, the perp returned to the scene, and Mark took his handgun and went to confront the man.
Mark was too soft hearted for such confrontations. The bad guy took Mark’s gun away and killed him.
He should have stayed where he was, and not taken any chances, you know?