Wobblies and Weirdos of Peterborough Coffee Shops

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Today’s Blog Post
Wobblies and Weirdos of Peterborough Coffee Shops

Meet Mr. Bob Bowers. He has been the local potential candidate for the possible MPP and MP jobs for Peterborough area in previous election season. If he would have got one of the jobs… his fame would have been greater than it is now. Now he has another kind of fame.

I have come to know Bob casually – from across the way – from where I was sitting. Never really came to speak with him but rather come to “know him” in a coffee shop sort of way.

After you are in these establishments enough you now who will be there in that particular setting. A few of us move around so we are known in many places.

Now before I say more about Bob I should explain a few things that will help you understand the stetting and the subculture that exists in our city.

Coffee shops all are different. There very situation in the city will produce different clients as well as the stuff they offer in the coffee shop. Different treats in different places bring different people.

For example the Silver Bean on Peterborough’s waterfront, just down from the Centennial Park, is a great one that we enjoy on our bike rides. The coffee is great and the great big cookie is enough for two people to share. The cookie is the size of a normal saucer.

Tim Horton’s coffee shops are easy to get to and fun to stop at. Each Tim Horton shop has a different clientele. Some are oldies, some are younger and on welfare(Ontario Works), and some are just not like everyone else. And almost all of them have someone that is really different.

That last statement is where I introduce the kind of “wobbly and weird” people that come into the places of business. Some of the wobbly people have different disabilities – and well… they wobble when they walk. That is not derogatory in classification… just a fact that helps you visualize what happens.

Weird on the other hand is not so easily understood until they do or say something that is weird. Not putting down weird people – just letting you know what they look like – or act like.

One dude appears in a number of settings – like I do. For that reason I see and hear what he does and what he says rather loudly to people he knows. He never seems to sit with anyone or have any friends that he comes in with… he just seems to know everyone. I call him Albert – “weird Al” for short – or W.A.

I think W.A. attends the “over the top church” cause that is what he talks about as he stands over some unexpected twosome to talk loudly about what happens in church last Sunday.

When W.A. sits by himself I walk up to him and talk over his table – at him. He gets uncomfortable when I do that because he can’t remember who I am. I change settings too often to let him get a reading and he hasn’t yet caught on to that fact.

W.A. is a misfit that maybe has some sort of mental handicap. Not sure what – just know that it is there making his social interaction a little weird.

Another thing that is quite noticeable is the Biker Types that congregate at a Coffee shop of their liking. These guys particularly like(d) the Tim Horton shop on George Street across from the Holiday Inn. They gather to sip their one coffee for a half hour or an hour or so. They want people to see them and their motorcycles. They don’t sit inside but must be outside to show off. Hardly ever there on a raining day… but always there taking up the parking spots for other customers.

They never bother my wife and I as we also come on our Bikes that we lock up to the fence… but we pedal these Bikes. Their Bikes are the Varroom Kind.

The owner of that Tim Horton Shop has had the police on these guys to move out and away... in that they hang around longer than the 20 minute coffee drinking time that is allotted to the patron.

Now back to Bob Bower.

Bob loves “The Only Cafe”. He likes the coffee and likes the prices. He likes his friends that gather there and the ones that he knows so well.

Now he sits across the street at the “Black Honey” coffee shop yearning to get back into “The Only Café”.

Get back in? What does that mean?

Well Bob has been banned from The Only Café for inappropriate activities that have caused others to avoid it when he is there.

It seems that Bob was having a bad lung day… and after some rather nasty deep coughing he spat out the contents of his lower lungs on the floor. If it had been once only it might not matter… but he did it more than once and while he sat in that one spot… gathered a rather significant lower lung collection on the floor.

Not only did Bob let the lower lung empty on The Only Café floor – he also urinated where he sat – so I was told. Likely after coughing that hard he peed his pants too and then just sat there.

The waitresses and staff had a hard time dealing with this and so did other customers. So Bobby was told to leave and not come back!

That is not fair to treat some one like that – is it? If you sit next to him – you might think that it is fair. That is how I met him… by listening to him hack and hack away that foul inner, lower lung crapola… thinking that I might step in it when he let go.

Now think back to the top of this article – Bob Bowers is a potential candidate for the MPP and MP position of Peterborough.

Bob has now launched a Human Rights Commission complaint and expects to get satisfaction from winning his taking on The Only Café.

He is expecting to get $1700 to cover his move to Terrace Bay(where his daughter lives) – where he went when he was expelled from The Only Café. Then he wants $2370 dollars that he has spent extra in buying the 50 Cent Extra coffees at the Black Honey. And I almost forgot, he wants $20,000 for general damages that he has experienced to his self-respect and dignity.

Bob Bowers is able to do this because his claim will be heard as a Schizophrenic – a mental health condition that the Manager of The Only Cafe didn’t know about.

If you come to the City of Peterborough we not only have the Lift Locks and the Canadian Canoe Museum to visit – we have hundreds of Coffee Shops that you can tour while you are here. Think of them as the equivalent to the English Pub in Britain – only no Brew is served.

My wife and I are conducting tours of the different coffee shops if you want to come along. Discreetly we point out the different “Wobblies and Weirdos” that we know. And if you would like we can introduce you to Bob Bowers too.

That is easy… you just have to follow the sound of the deep, deep, deep lower lung calling.

Anyone for a Coffee now?

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://www.mykawartha.com/opinion/columns/article/851722--tuff-ink-human-rights-vs-business-rights