My Uncle Bill passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was the first to die in my parents’ generation on my dad’s side of the family. Although he had been ill, his death was unexpected. I’ll miss his dry humor and his dinner table antics. My memories of Uncle Bill are probably similar to my brother and sister, his love for fishing and tennis and practical jokes.
My Uncle Bill passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was the first to die in my parents’ generation on my dad’s side of the family. Although he had been ill, his death was unexpected. I’ll miss his dry humor and his dinner table antics. My memories of Uncle Bill are probably similar to my brother and sister, his love for fishing and tennis and practical jokes. However I have one memory that may not be shared by other family members.
His work brought him to Owensboro fairly regularly. During some of those visits he would take time to stop by Sure Gas. On one hot summer day he stopped by my office and invited me to lunch. We went down to Jack and Jenny’s for a good ol’ plate lunch. Jenny came to the table to take our order and Uncle Bill ordered his lunch and iced coffee. (Let me stop here and explain that this was more than 25 years ago, long before Starbucks and the frappuccino craze.) Jenny gave my uncle the strangest look, “iced what?”. “Iced coffee”, he said. “I’m sorry, we don’t have anything like that”, Jenny said. But Uncle Bill wasn’t to be dissuaded and went on to ask Jenny to bring him a glass of ice and a cup of coffee which he poured over the ice. Every few minutes he would asked for more ice and more coffee and each time Jenny would bring it to the table and give him a strange look. I have to admit that at the time I was probably giving him a strange look because this was the first time I had heard of “iced coffee”.
This little incident has stuck with me over the years for a few reasons, one is the funny look Jenny gave Uncle Bill and his unflappable response. Another is how Uncle Bill got what he wanted without belittling anyone. Lastly, he showed me how we can look at an ordinary everyday item that we might take for granted (like coffee) in a new and different way and find a whole new dimension to it.
Now it’s 25 years later and I confess that I look forward to those hot summer days when I get a chance to stop into a little dinner for a breakfast with friends or for lunch with a fellow worker and I tell an unsuspecting waitress “I’ll have iced coffee, please”.