Coffee (Warning: LONG)
(no name) ((no email))
Sat, 18 May 1996 20:05:00 -0500
And this all started with John Pannell:
> We teach the Scouts to avoid things that are harmful to our >bodies.
Caffeine is a physically addictive drug. B-P wrote >that coffee should be
avoided on camps. Beside it's >addictiveness, coffee and caffeine have
other effects on the >body in significant quantities.
As a person that drinks two POTS (that's 28 cups for those
counting!!) a DAY, I can tell you that coffee is indeed very
addictive. I have tried to go without coffee for significant
periods of time. I get nauseated, I sweat. My hands and sometimes my legs
have shook. I find it hard to concentrate on even simple tasks because my
head is pounding as if someone used it as a war drum. I went nine days
without coffee, attempting to use Coca-Cola, Pepsi, RC, Mountain Dew and
even Kick and something called "Ski" (all with high caffiene content). It
didn't work. NOTHING tastes, smells, and goes down like COFFEE.
> As a general rule, we do not allow children to drink it. We >are to lead
by example.
My mother allowed me to drink coffee when I was only nine
years old. I guess in part, that's the reason why I was never attracted to
other drugs or alcohol during my "formative" years growing up. They were
there, in my community, but somehow while everyone was huffing and puffing
and taking pills and doing six-packs, I was just content with a pot of
coffee -- and Scouting.
I have NOT lived a pious life, but to *me*, a cold beer is NOT the same
thing as a cold (or warm) cup/mug/glass/container of coffee. A mixed drink
is not the same as hazelnut blend coffee with Pet {tm} milk and REAL sugar!
I discouraged my kids, starting with my daughter whom was the most curious.
But I understand that my youngest son Aaron has taken to drinking coffee
while living with his mother. I have also discouraged my Scouts from
drinking coffee during campouts, but its VERY HARD to enforce that policy
when every time you see me, its with a mug of coffee in hand or nearby.
> Therefore, why do we allow consumption of coffee on >campouts?
I think, John, it's a combination of having something familiar to us as
adults when we awake in the morning, something that we can use as an
"icebreaker" to socialize (I don't know how many times I've visited other
campsites under the "pretense" of asking if they have any coffee...it's one
of those "secret passwords" we as Scouters have used to identify ourselves to
each other....*grunting* REAL SCOUTERS DRINK COFFEE!! *grunting*) . Coffee
is also something that is ALMOST universally used as a "gathering point", as
in during the evening Crackerbarrels at camp or after an OA ceremony.
(or after a rather successful Troop meeting in which you didn't have to
repair or replace ANYTHING!!) *heehehehehee*
Rex Goode brought up something I always wanted to know:
>As a Mormon, I don't drink coffee, but I wouldn't dream of >banning its use
by non-Mormons on Scout property.
I made the rounds one morning and stopped by a campsite "bumming" a cup of
coffee. The Scouter that responded told me that "we don't drink caffiene
here", and after I apologized,
I went onward. This begs the question for our Mormon and
other Scouters whose religious beliefs exclude the use of coffee, tea and
chocolate (two of the four "Mike Walton" food groups represented
there....*smiling*) :
What warm beverage IS acceptable as a "universal drink"? Cocoa and hot
chocolate (and their imitators) are out. So is tea and coffee. What else
is there?
...and of course, there HAS to be *someone* that thinks, as Lisa Varner wrote:
> Why not eliminate that coffee altogether,
Get rid of coffee?? What?? Let's get rid of automobiles!! We don't need
them...give every family a Greyhound/Trailways AmeriPass, a set of bicycles
and matching helmets and gloves (which, like seat belts in cars, people
won't wear them because "it makes me look goofy" or "it's unconfortable".
As told here, they DO SAVE LIVES) !!
I was really relieved when Jim Sheckles responded and continued my train of
thought.....
>I shudder to think, Cannot think. Eliminate coffee!! Getting >the jerks,
withdrawal, thinking...about it. Lightheaded. Dizzy. > Nausea.
Eliminate.......coffee!!
>
>Ain't there a law about that kind of talk....slander? libel?
>
>This person needs help FAST!!! ;-)
We'll work on Lisa, Jim!! Thanks for supporting the "pro-coffee side"!!
*laughter*
W.W. Mitchell also wrote:
>>If there isn't a law there should be. I am willing to endure >almost
anything on a campout - BUT NOT NO COFFEE.
To me, coffee makes *anything* bearable. During the Gulf
War, I would sit in the "boxcar" (a signal shelter, while it had
a/c, was STILL quite hot inside), installing software and cards into
computers, connecting them and insuring that they worked. Boring work. The
only thing to keep the day going was the friendly coffeepot over in the rear
center of the van. Between that, and my visits to Mr. Potty, I didn't care
if the War went on for *another month*.
After boring briefings on the U.S. side of the "great pond", I was more than
ready for a styrofoam cup of coffee if nothing else but to let the stinging
liquid wake me up. Of course, as I stated earlier, that "let's go and have
coffee" line worked wonders, as I used it to get to know the people in my
unit, even though many of them didn't drink coffee while we discussed
various things.
Coffee has been one of those *American* things, to go back to what John
Pennell stated from B-P, that we just do here.
Coffee contains a drug, says our Food & Drug Admininstration, but we seem to
place it on or near the same status as what we used to say about cigarettes
and cigars: It's harmful, but as long as you're the only person being
harmed, go ahead. The difference is that while cigarettes and cigars can
and have harmed others with their smoke, coffee only does harm to those
ingesting it.
Scouts (and others) have asked me why I drink coffee. I drink it because I
enjoy the flavor and taste of coffee. I enjoy having a cup or mug with my
meals but I'm not at the point whereby I *HAVE* to have it first thing in
the morning (close, but I'm not there yet). I also enjoy the smell of
coffee, before it's brewed and while it's being brewed. I love going into
coffeeshops that sell coffee by the pound, not because I can drink coffee
there all day long without being chastized, but because of the various
aromas circulating in the room. I will drink coffee cold, without sugar and
milk or cream, and will drink decaffinated coffee if I *have to*. I'm not
a *true* coffee fan, because there's some of those "flavored coffees" that I
won't drink; and I think that General Foods think that "Americans will
drink anything" with that international "instant coffee in a can" junk !!
Flavored water!!! Yuck!
Pat Hamilton and I had the same idea around the same time:
>In either 1971 or 1972, while I was in college, I wrote a letter to >the
Maxwell House Company and asked them why couldn't >they make coffee bags
that worked in a similar manner to tea >bags. I never heard back from
them.... So much for my shot >at the big bucks!
In 1973, I wrote to the American Coffee Company asking
if they were interested in an idea I had. I told them that one of the parts
about drinking coffee I hated was the removal and
throwing away of the coffeegrounds. I thought that if you
placed the grounds into a disposable bag, and placed this bag
into the pot, the water would pour through the grounds and
afterwards, you throw the bag away. I never heard anything back from them,
but a short time after that, I was in the Post Commissary doing shopping
with my mom, and saw something called "Brim". It was made I think by
General Foods (which bought American Coffee), and featured small packets
which had filter and coffee in one. You placed the packet into the pot
where you would normally place the coffee by itself, brew, and
then remove and throw away the packet.
It never caught on, and while we bought it for a while, my mother went back
to the old *yucko* Maxwell House.
Coffee is a part of living in America as tea would be living under the
British Crown. As a Scouter, I do have a responsibility in sharing with my
Scouts and fellow Scouters that caffiene, in tablet or liquid form, is a
drug and can be addictive. For me, I can't tell any significant things that
coffee does to me...it doesn't make my heart race. I can go to sleep easily
at night and my digestive system is the same as it was
when I was younger. The ABSENCE of coffee, I can tell my Scouts and
Scouters, is VERY harrowing for me, and makes me much closer to being a Bear
than a Beaver.
I am glad, however, that the BSA doesn't make us coffeedrinkers stop...and
that there are no plans to modify an already hard-to-enforce-equatably
policy (I'm speaking of the smoking policies here) with an additional one
covering caffeine.
What would we drink in substitute?? Would the Rockwell picture of the
Scoutmaster be touched-up to remove the coffeepot on the cooling coals?
Would the coffeepot be removed from the Trail Chef cook kits? Would we have
to drink during breaks at Roundtables *gasp* Koolaid?
NOT!!
Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Services of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |]
(H) 502.827.9201 (F) 502.826.7046 (W) 888.284.4848 (yea!) coffee?
anytime!
(Email) blackeagle@hcc-uky.campus.mci.net/kyblkeagle@AOL.COM
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