Ad Hudler - Ad Libbing

A Fort Myers Moment
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I'm in the waiting room in the service department at Fort Myers Honda, putting some tires on my daughter's car. I came here at 7:00 a.m. so was thrilled to find a coffee machine in the lobby. Not just any coffee machine, mind you, but one of those fancy gourmet contraptions where you choose your flavor of high-end coffee (in a pouch) and insert it into a machine for a personalized and delicious cuppa Joe.

But this is Fort Myers, land of vein clinics, denture depots and early-bird specials. And most of the customers around me are men in their sixties or older, and they really HATE this coffee! They're sitting around me, complaining about it. Absolutely grumbling. They are accustomed to a different kind of coffee: institutional, not as strong, more like brown water infused with essence of coffee.

"This damned coffee's burned!" says one.

Another man is reading "Trigonometry For Dummies."

Most of them are wearing baseball caps.

Also popular with retired men: New Balance Tennis shoes....and I'm not sure why.

They are reading newspapers.

And watching me text on my phone.

If only they could get some decent coffee in this place!

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