Of gooks and hoods and coffee...

I was watching an old episode of M*A*S*H last night, "L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel)," in which Hawkeye tries to help a fellow soldier cut through Army regs and marry the (Korean) mother of his child so that they can fly back to the states as a family. The subplot was Hawkeye's attempt to bed down a nurse (Nurse Able or Baker or Campbell or something... progressive as it was, M*A*S*H was notorious for giving its nurses generic names, at least early in the series): Hawkeye sets up a date with the nurse, only to find himself detained by a C.I.D. (Army intelligence) officer investigating the marriage request.

When Hawkeye finally makes it over to the nurse's tent, he tries to explain why he was late for their date, and the beautiful, lusty, desirable nurse whose neck and lips he is nibbling says something like, "So... you were late because you were trying to help one of our people marry a gook?"

It was a beautifully crafted scene, and totally believable, because it reflects something that happens repeatedly in life: someone you admired or held in high esteem says something or does something --sometimes it's just one word, like gook-- that, while "right" to them, reveals a side of their personality that just makes you want to run for the exits... thus shattering your illusions about them forever.

I had such a moment during my trip to Vermont last weekend. I was in Montpelier at a cafe (ok, it was Capitol Grounds), which, on the one hand, I've always liked and I always try to visit (they roast their own beans; nothing like drinking a cup of coffee from beans that were roasted on the premises the same day), but, on the other hand, always had SOMETHING about it that put me off.

From my journal:

At Capitol Grounds. I'm sitting here at the counter that faces out onto State Street. To my left is a girl studying from an anatomy and physiology book; to my right, a guy pounding away email on a laptop. Neither one of them has coffee. (The girl, in fact, was drinking water from a Nalgene bottle --m) Meanwhile, there was a group of about 5-6 high school kids, a couple of them dressed really punky, in black, with piercings, spiked wristbands, torn jeans, etc, sitting at one of the two sidewalk tables in front of the cafe. Not making a scene; not bothering anyone; just talking and laughing and enjoying the sunny day, like high school kids do. But: no coffee.
Now... guess who's still sitting where, and guess whose presence drew out the owner to chase them away?

Like the nurse's use of the word gook, that little episode explained and revealed a lot. I'm sure 9 out of 10 shop owners would take the side of the cafe owner: he'd say that it "doesn't look right" to have punky-looking non-paying-customer high school kids hanging out in front of your store.

Still, as Hawkeye discovered when he tried to go back and kiss those lips that had uttered that epithet, the coffee didn't taste quite the same to me after I saw him chase those kids off and leave the studying, typing yuppies alone.