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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Coffeehouse is a perfect place to get grounded
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Patrons dash in and out. Most stay to read and chat or to fire up their laptops.
Soothing music plays. You can’t escape the aroma of coffee.
I’m in the Northern Star Coffee House, a cozy cafe on South Peachtree Street in downtown Norcross. I don’t know what it is about coffeehouses, but I always feel doubly smart whenever I visit one.
Maybe it’s because you’re seemingly surrounded by the best of society, thinkers and doers who gather soberly to converse, commune and network, to talk about making life, theirs and in many cases the community’s, better.
In a way, the people who occupy the tables, couches and chairs are hosting town hall meetings, allowing ideas to percolate.
And because I am jaded with celebrity news, the war, our government, the people in charge of it and many of those jockeying to be president, the Badie Tour spent a few hours Wednesday in search of inspiration, fresh ideas, real people, a respite.
What better place to look than the Northern Star, a 3-year-old shop whose owner, William C. Leubben, sought from the onset to turn it into a town square of sorts.
I’d just walked inside the cafe when Keith Shewbert, the rookie Norcross city councilman, beckoned me to a table he shared with three others. He invited me to attend a town hall meeting set for next Thursday to talk about local schools —- their quality, perception, reality, parental input and economic impact.
“Education is the linchpin to everything,” Shewbert told me. “If we have good schools, we capture a broad, diverse middle class.”
On the patio, a dozen or so kids and their moms wrap up story time, held 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Wednesday. Maureen McNamara and her children —- Sean, 3, and Cate, 1 —- don’t miss it.
“They love the stories and the crafts,” the Norcross mom told me. “You get regular moms attending.”
Soon, McNamara will jockey four babies. Twins arrive this November.
“Having three was a surprise,” she said. “But four was a shock. It will be fun, though.”
In the cafe, two teens sit hunched over a laptop. It’s Mary Crippen and Nami Patel, a recent AJC Gwinnett News intern.
Patel, 18, wants to get into politics some day, and is considering a major in international relations. Crippen, 17, is leaning toward linguistics. Both 2007 Norcross High grads, they’ll attend NYU this fall but not room together.
“We’d kill each other,” Patel said, laughing. “It’s better for our sanity.”
Before I leave, I strike up a conversation with Norm Cranford, a Duluth resident who, a few years back, ran unsuccessfully for a local school board seat.
The retired engineer for Primerica is studying to become a certified financial planner. I suppose his is an altogether different purpose than most who enter the profession.
“I want to teach the kids how to handle their money,” he said.
Who knows?
Maybe he can hold free classes at the Northern Star.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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