WHAT VALLEY NEEDS IS A NEW SUGAR BOWL

Several years ago, I was surprised to see a new business in the building next to where Les Howley's barber shop had been when I was a boy.

The place in question, an espresso and pastry shop, looked inviting so I turned in.

Each day after that, until I retired in 1997, my morning decaf was poured into the green car cup right there at the Rocket Bakery. Generally, the strong brown liquid washed down a raspberry oat bar or a piece of pumpkin bread as I went over the hill and across the prairie to Mead.

While the delicacies were tasty, they were further sweetened by a dollop of nostalgia.

Before moving to Opportunity in 1955, my family had lived in the West Valley community.

It didn't take me long to discover the Sugar Bowl, a bakery and cafe located in the heart of Millwood at Argonne and Euclid. It was a multi-purpose food emporium. Along the west wall was the bakery, with glass-front pastry cabinets, and along the east wall were the soda fountain and grill. The booths were in front, by the windows.

I went there for cream puffs and as I stood waiting, adult conversations buzzed around me. The words meant little as I was eager to fill my stomach.

However, these conversations seem much more important now than they seemed then.

Folks in the 1950s had fewer people talking at them, on radio and over TV, so they talked more to each other.

While they were having lunch or were on a midmorning break, they enjoyed the food and discussed the issues of the day.

The Sugar Bowl reminds me, a former history teacher, of the marketplace at Athens.

Each day, a wide variety of people met, ate and talked about what was on their minds.

Informal conversation 2,500 years ago, and now, is the lifeblood of democracy.

When the Sugar Bowl went out of business in the late 1960s, an important element of democracy went with it.

Nobody thought about democracy when the latte shops began to pop up about a decade ago.

The first ones were little huts at busy intersections. Soon after, sit-down places began to appear. Drinking coffee, talking and eating pastry inched into the lives of young Valleyites, especially on weekend mornings.

Other folks continued to patronize places like Mel's in Veradale, as their parents had before them.

Unlike the conversations at the Sugar Bowl though, most coffee discussion today takes place among people who think and feel similarly, not among people of other generations or persuasions.

Efforts have been made in some places to diversify informal conversation.

Daniel Kemmis, the former mayor of Missoula, used several approaches to encourage people of differing opinions to talk to one another. He knew that informal conversation was basic to a truly democratic community.

First, he made himself available at different coffee shops each Saturday morning. People talked to him, but they also talked to one another. He promoted the idea of a Farmers' Market. The people who produced the goods were often quite different from those who bought them.

Conversation occurred. People began to understand one another better.

Restoring this natural, informal kind of discussion will be harder here in the Spokane Valley than it was in Missoula, which had a mayor to lead the way.

We don't have a Valley government, and most of us do not seem to want one.

Consequently, we need to find other approaches to enable democracy to grow.

Encouraging the kind of intergenerational and cross-opinion discussion that occurred at the Sugar Bowl must be a priority, because it is the kind of talk upon which America was built.

Most of us believe in democracy and want the Spokane Valley to be a safe, pleasant community.

If that is what we want, there will need to be places where raspberry oat bars and maple bars can share the same plate.

Joel Harding, a retired educator, grew up in the Spokane Valley. He is a member of the Valley Voice Council of Contributors.

Copyright 1999 Cowles Publishing Company
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