A woman standing in line stares wistfully at Tracy Yip and Ann
Howe, who sit quietly chatting, intermittently sipping their lattes
at the Garlic City Cafe at 10:40am on a Wednesday.
Are they slackers? Unemployed software engineers?
A woman standing in line stares wistfully at Tracy Yip and Ann Howe, who sit quietly chatting, intermittently sipping their lattes at the Garlic City Cafe at 10:40am on a Wednesday.
Are they slackers? Unemployed software engineers? Hollywood casting directors out to find the next beauty of the silver screen?
No. Yip and Howe have been meeting for coffee and a friendly chat on a regular basis since 1987. Howe is retired and Yip works part-time for the school district.
“I’ve been coming down here as long as I can remember,” Yip said. “I just take about an hour’s break from work, and I see my friends.”
Could this sort of leisure be the norm? Call us myth-busters or day-dream killers if you will, but your local newspaper staff decided to corner a few of these mid-day minglers to find out exactly what they were up to. Join us as we hunt down the South Valley’s daytime dawdlers.
9:45am
Caffee Kaffee Vin, Morgan Hill
In the quiet back room of this strangely busy coffee house, Lisa Norman pores over her text books in preparation for an exam at San Jose State University. The senior education major is getting ready for a test in her language learning and development class over a foamy latte.
“At my house there’s too much going on, and at the school library, it’s too quiet, so this is just right,” said Norman.
Out front, Joe Eisenman, who drinks his coffee black and is “in computer work,” is just waking up his mind.
“I tend to work late at night, so this is where I start my day,” said Eisenman.
Marie Borteck and her friends are beginning to trickle in for their morning coffee. For the last 10 years, she’s attended a morning workout with Barbara Hammond,
Joy Chalmers, Rose Hernandez and Lynn Madding. After the class, the ladies all migrate to a coffee shop for conversation.
10:20am
It’s A Grind, Gilroy
Brian Plumleigh doesn’t have a desk. He restores old cars for a living, catching up on his accounts and paperwork while sipping a cappuccino in a coffee shop he picked “for the comfy chairs.”
That’s what attracted friends Felicity Smith and Chelese Struthers to the shop, too. Smith, a resident of Monterey, and Struthers, a Gilroy resident who commutes to school at UC Berkeley, use their time to catch up on one another’s lives “about once a week.”
2:30pm
Main Street Bistro, Hollister
Thirty-five-year-old Bill Marder, a local attorney, is sitting down to lunch, his freshly made turkey-avocado sandwich and creamy potato soup at the ready.
“I just like to eat at funny times,” he said.
A few tables away, Joyce Hammett waits for her coffee.
The Watsonville resident stops in for a drink each time she’s in town to get her hair done, both because the coffee is good and because it’s in the same building as the hair salon.
“There’s a girl there that I always go see,” said Hammett, 58, a self-employed business woman. “I like the way she does my hair.”
Hammett closed up shop for the day to fit the appointment in. The best part: She’s a hairstylist herself.
2:45pm
Elegant Touch, Hollister
Hollister resident Terry Brennan, 52, looks up from her book, “Ready or Not, Here Life Comes,” as the salad plate is cleared away. She’s here for the peace and quiet, away from her home with its entanglement of responsibilities. There, she would have to consider her teenager, her four horses and her sundry cats, not to mention the laundry, dishes, cooking and cleaning.
Retired school teacher Gloria Zuniga usually comes into the coffee shop for the opposite reason: To get a little conversation going. Mornings find her at Elegant Touch, sharing coffee with her cousin, but this afternoon is a bit different. Her daughter is the guest of honor instead.
Come to find out, most of our coffee shop chatters are ordinary, hardworking people just like the folks in line. So much for that big-screen contract.
