My grandfather George Britton did the same thing. He used to get up around 4:00 a.m., before everyone else, and made his own breakfast and coffee. I was about 3 and used to get up and have breakfast with him (biscuits from scratch, fried sausage, and coffee). He made biscuits even better than my mother or grandmother! He'd tease me sometimes when pouring the coffee into the tiniest cup he could find. He'd say "Coffee will make you black!", and I believed him.

He cleaned up the kitchen spic and span and then sat on the porch outside for his ride to work at Hunt's Foods in Oakland, CA, holding his black lunch pail on his lap. I fought sleep peering out of the second story livingroom window, and only after his ride picked him up did I go back back to bed. I cherish the memory of those times.

Georgia Walker-Adams