Old Haunts

The coffee shop that my group of friends frequented in high school is closing.  I haven’t thought about the shop since high school (over a decade ago now, yeesh), but over the weekend a friend from those days tagged me in a facebook post linking to an article about the shop’s pending closure.  Just reading the name in the headline “Paris on the Platte” sent a flood of memories to mind.

The shop was where my forensics team (speech and debate, not body cutting) would go after tournaments to partake in youthful rebellion in the safest manner possible.  The shop was on the outer edge of Denver, so we suburbanites could say we were going into the city without actually visiting the city.  A layer of smoke clung to the ceiling at all hours of the day, this being back in days of old when smoking indoors was legal.  Local artists displayed their crafts on the walls and all the servers (this is pre “everyone serving coffee is called a barista” too, like I said it’s been awhile) had tattoos and piercings.  It was the coolest place a teenager could be on a Saturday night.  We drank Chai tea by the gallon, laughed, told dumb stories and played games until just before we had to leave to not be out later than curfew.  I don’t think any of us actually enjoyed the tea, but it was just what you did at Paris on the Platte.

It was an important place for my group of friends.  The friend that posted it to Facebook and I have not spoken in over a decade, but this place was a store that meant so much more than coffee. It was a building that embodied teenage romanticism and idealism, all the frustrations and wonder of youth, every little moment of those teenage years that was of vital importance then, but now are mostly just joyfully trivial.

And now it’s gone.

More of these old stomping grounds are going to be closed and shuttered as time trudges on, but this is the first big one.  I hope my sons get to have a place that will always bring smiles or “oh, goodness I can’t believe I did that” memories.  Some place that after years of distance still bring people together to reminisce.  And hopefully their place is free of Chai tea.