May 19, 2024

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

     As a creature of habit, and because you take joy in very simple pleasure, my morning routine, as with others, includes a newspaper pick-up and coffee, for me from five distinct shops during the week that also offer commonality. It’s always an early start – 6 a.m. – and is the day’s best moment. There is quiet, light traffic, the birds in morning conversation. The cacophony has yet to turn on, and so turn us off.

     One morning rendezvous gets its newspaper bundle – Gannett Journal-News, NY Daily News, NY Post, Times – dropped off at the door, and the owner leaves it for me to pick up, cut the bundling cord and set out the papers on the counter. I don’t work for him, but the ritual works for me, and the fellow lets me help for that quick moment before I get a fresh-brewed regular and say my goodbye.

     Cutting the bundle cord brings me back to my first job in my former 42-year newspaper career – as a “flyboy” catching the old Rockland Journal-News flying off the press and then tying the bundles of 24 or so papers at an automatic cord machine. I can still feel the machine’s rhythm. It is a re-invigorating moment because that small job at $1.25 hour led to a successful – thank the heavens – career. The right one.

     The other shops I visit include Charlie’s Red Maple in Closter, N.J., where he always has his own fresh-baked muffins ready as he serves customers from 4:30 a.m.-on. The hello/goodbye is quick, but 34 years of doing that means family.

     Other places on other mornings deliver the same reinforcement needed for the day. The oddities, the uniqueness, the quirks, the smiles, the particular taste of coffee, the tradesmen at the counter getting ready for work, the fellows with habit similar to mine –  all small but vital reminders of humanity.

     The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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