My heart broke a little bit today

You get to a certain age and you get sentimental about things, people and places. This morning I got up early-ish and ran some errands. I got a much-needed haircut and took a long walk before stopping for coffee. I decided today would be the day I stopped at the new coffee shop in Ridgewood.

In the past decade or so we have had an influx of new coffee shops. Which has been great? But I have been hesitant to come to Porcelain. Mostly because for decades I used to come to this space every Friday night for my weekly scout meetings.

The former butcher shop on the corner of Catalpa and Woodward Avenues was home to Troop 327 for decades. Probably about a decade ago we outgrew to space and started meeting exclusively in the school building. But that building was always referred to as the scout office. I grew up in this room (well it used to be two rooms). Some of my best memories happened here. And now I’m enjoying a very buttery apple and pear tart in what was the Catalpa side window where Mr.Dowd always wanted to install a LED recruiting sign. Feet away from where a future Naval Commander and a national guard director would go crashing through a plane glass window. I’m sitting here drinking a way too expensive and way too ordinary cup of coffee and listening to what I can only imagine is Brazilian music.

I know the church sold this building. And eventually, the new owners would turn it into something else. And a coffee shop is a great choice (it was also a set for some scenes in The Irishman starring Robert DeNiro). But I can’t help remembering meetings here. Lugging up equipment before and after camping trips. I became Scoutmaster in the room (weirdly enough I also stopped down as Scoutmasters in this room during a committee meeting).

They didn’t fix the ceiling, change the floors or the iconic aluminum door (where the totem pole lived behind) but this is not my place anymore.