Coffee Houses

The mid 60's was a period in history when we saw a lot of coffee houses in Toronto and other cities. They were springing up all over the place and young people of every description went there to "mingle" and contemplate the meaning of "life."  

The price of coffee was a reachable 50 cents a cup and the patrons felt right at home on the Salvation Army bought tables and chairs.   If the place was a more up-scale establishment you even got to sit on the floor. 

Young people loved these down to earth settings. Usually there was some kind of added ambiance, in the way of a singer/guitarist that usually sang about peace and brotherly love. 

These troubadours just wandered in off the street and proceeded to do their "thing" for lack of anything else to do. It was always a freebie on the part of musicians, poets and other participants. It was a time of freedom and these "artists" felt obliged (in keeping with the times) to contribute their "talents, " also for free. 

It was an interesting period to view human behavior with all the longhaired guys looking for a place to hangout.  They were existing and enjoying "their" lifestyle away from the cares of a war a lot of them had managed to avoid. The girls also fit into this melting pot of humanity, with their fashion statements of beads, army boots and hand-me-down clothes.

On Avenue Road there was such a coffee house for people that just wanted to mingle.   Now, this Jazz group had been working out (jamming) up the street and it was getting quite late. Someone suggested that they continue playing but at the Coffee House. There were still a couple of hours to "swing" with other musicians that might happen to drop by. It might be a fun way to unwind at another location and later have a cup of coffee.

They decided on this place because one of the musicians knew the owner and there was an up-right piano there they could use. It would be a "kick" to blow some more Jazz and a great way to wrap up the evening.

The musicians, about 4 or 5 of them played for about 50 minutes and decided to take a break.  The piano player thought it was time for a coffee and after all, a coffee house is where you order coffee.

The waiter that came over asked for a dollar fifty for a cup of coffee. Now it had always been 50 cents and the surprised piano player questioned how come the price had just tripled.

 He got, "Well tonight we have a band and our price is higher when we have entertainment." 

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