Is It Just About the Coffee?

I’m here in Portsmouth, NH, (when I should be in New Orleans, but that’s another blog,) and I need the Internet. My 84 year old mother, whose ill health is the cause of this unusual midweek visit, has no Internet access, and it seems that no one else in the neighborhood does either. I’ll go downtown, where I’m sure both the public library and Starbucks will have wireless.

Portsmouth is an interesting place. When I left here for Hartford some 30 years ago, (another proof that love is blind,) Portsmouth was a lot like Hartford is today—no downtown shopping, people drinking out of paper bags in broad daylight, and with not much more to recommend it than its proximity to Boston. It was a small place from which the valedictorians fled and the rest went to work at the Navy Yard or had kids with those who did. But there were those who loved it, including the local librarian, maiden lady Dorothy Vaughn. She and some friends started up a little something called Strawberry Banke, capitalizing on Portsmouth’s colonial history and its place on the river and proximity to the beach, as well as to the Boston of Kevin White. Portsmouth’s redevelopment of working class housing, unlike Hartford’s botched Front Street demolition, was the beginning of Portsmouth as a destination, a destination so pricey that I couldn’t reverse course now even if I wanted to. But enough about Portsmouth, back to the Internet—Starbucks or the library?

I made my choice. I spent two days sitting in front of Starbucks trying to make their touted tmobile wireless connection connect, even though I knew I would have to pay for it with a credit card if it ever worked. I only went to the library (whose connection worked perfectly every time) as a last resort when I became seriously email deprived. Why was I so reluctant to give up Starbucks for the library? Was it just a librarian’s aversion to a busman’s holiday? The library turned out to be perfectly fine and I spent two days working there quite happily. My reluctance to abandon Starbucks for the library, however, is a puzzlement. What does she have that I don’t have?

If anyone is comfortable in libraries and with librarians, it would be me, and I actually prefer Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. So what is it? I fear it’s the old perception vs. reality thing. Starbucks is perceived to be bright young things behind the counter, new music playing and available for sale, comfortable furniture inhabited by comfortable people, bright sunny windows looking out on the agora, and almost unlimited hours open. Whether perception is reality or not, there could be a lesson here, and it’s not just about coffee.