Brian Nelson: Coffee at the Docks

 

Brian Nelson

Unloading Coffee in San Francisco, 1973.

Ed Nelson (my brother) and partner reach into a tight corner, winding up for a 6-foot toss onto a pallet board.

Among the many hands that brought coffee beans from plantations in the developing world to markets in the wealthy countries of North America and Europe in 1973 were those of the Longshoremen working in the holds of cargo vessels on the San Francisco waterfront. I was a Ship Clerk, down in the cargo holds with them, tallying. I took these, and hundreds more photographs, on the waterfront throughout the 1970's.

Brian Nelson. Roy, at the controls of the winches (at right), hoists the load out of the cargo hold. Roy was a London Docker prior to immigrating to San Francisco.

Brian Nelson. Willy Dedoud (aka The Dutchman, who often sang at work) hooks up a pallet down in the Lower Hold, 30 to 50 feet below the Maindeck.

Partners Willy Dedoud and Herman Garcia throw a pallet board on which they will build a load of 12 bags.

Photos and Words by Brian Nelson.
Brian Nelson is a member of the Art Junket. (2017-2022)

First Coffee

 

My first coffee

Coffee had a mean, dark, acrid taste; she and I were not friends.

It was a hard walk over sand and stones down into the cave. My daddy picked me up and carried me the last half mile to the bottom. I was 5. “At the bottom, we’ll find a place where we can get something to drink,” he said. Way down - 750 feet - there was a cafeteria that smelled like wet dirt and burnt coffee. My dad sat me down in a white leather booth, walked away and came back with a small cup. “Here you go, Honey. Maybe this coffee will make you feel better,” he said. Taking a spoonful of coffee, he doctored it with lots of sugar and milk. I thought it looked a bit like coca cola and I was happy to get my first grown-up drink. But the taste of the 1950s, “good to the very last drop," hit me with a searing headache. Coffee had a mean, dark, acrid taste and she and I were not friends. Why would anyone drink that stuff?

Kathleen Barry Fitts. Maureen and Bill.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of my relationship with coffee. Years later, she apologized for our first meeting. She later introduced me to the warm aroma of fine espresso in the coffee shops of Tokyo. My first cup, slow brewed, took 24 hours to process. She called herself, Aisu Kohi (iced coffee). She taught me that any relationship that she might have to that awful Folgers Coffee at the bottom of the cave was merely accidental.

Kathleen Fitts. Maureen and her daddy.

Today I own a burr grinder, a knock box, and an expensive silver Breville espresso machine which promises to ‘use the right dose of freshly ground beans, ensure precise temperature control, optimal water pressure, and create true micro-foam milk to deliver a harmonious blend of golden espresso and velvety textured milk.’ I know! And, a million miles away from that over-cooked and headache producing cup of coffee lurking down in the cave.

Words: Maureen Fitzmahan
Photos: Kathleen Fitts

Maureen Fitzmahan is cofounder of the Art Junket (2015-2022).

Coffee: 2021

 

Coffee in Music

Black coffee/Is my name/Black coffee/Ooh, is my thing. Black coffee/Freshly ground and fully prepared/Hot black coffee, boy/Mmh that's where it's at. Tina Turner

I never knew just what it was about this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew
I never knew just what it was about this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew

Landon Pigg, “Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop,” 2009

Kay Adamson. 2021.

It makes me think of mornings. Coffee. With scones and fresh raspberries. Barcelona in the Square seated at a table covered in red and white. Standing in line at Starbucks in New York. “Espresso, please. No! It’s my birthday. I’ll have a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino!” Waking up to my love with a cup of coffee in hand. “Sleepless in Seattle” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. I don’t remember if there is coffee in this movie, but it is filmed in Seattle and I imagine a lot of coffee was consumed by the film makers.

What is it about coffee?

Musicians love coffee. The memories, the color, the passion. Oh, yes, and the love! I researched many songs inspired by coffee. I spent a whole afternoon listening to songs in Spanish where the troubadour praised his love with coffee colored eyes Was the drink called café because it was coffee colored? Or is the color brown called café because it is the color of coffee?

And then there is the smell of coffee.

I get lost in the aroma of coffee.
Cafe your eyes, cafe your skin,
Cafe the wish that was not.
Cafe of your hair, your walk,
Cafe your body that is no longer.
In the same cafe,
In the same city,
I want another coffee to forget. * (Luciano Pereyra, “Aroma de Café”)

Me perco no aroma de um café.
Cafe seus olhos, cafe da sua pele,
Cafe o desejo que não foi.
Cafe do seu cabelo, o seu caminhar,
Cafe teu corpo que já não esta.
No mesmo café,
Na mesma cidade,
Eu quero outro café para esquecer.

Black coffee is used to protest injustice. Written by a Black woman, and later sung by a bunch of White guys from England, “Black Coffee” originally was written to say,

Black Coffee is my name…
Way back on yonder, I don't know when
I was brought over before I was ten
You see my skin is brown but my mind is black…
Here in America, the land of the free
You can get what you want if you got some DoReMi
I started out as a slave
I got free, I got paid
Now I'm independent and nobody's maid
I got me a place, I got me a raise. (Tina Turner, “Black Coffee.” Listen to the original here.

Kay Adamson. 2020

And coffee can be philosophical, judgy, even metaphysical.

The trouble with the world today it seems to me
Is coffee in a cardboard cup
The trouble with the affluent society
Is coffee in a cardboard cup

No one's ever casual and nonchalant
No one wastes a minute in a restaurant
No one wants a waitress passing pleasantries
Like "Hiya miss"
"Hiya sir"
"May I take your order please"

The trouble with the world today is plain to see
Is everything is hurry up
It's "rush it through"
"Don't be slow"
"BLT on rye to go"
And coffee
I think she said 'coffee'
I know she said 'coffee
In a cardboard cup'

The trouble with the helter skelter life we lead
Is coffee in a cardboard cup
The trouble the psychologists have all agreed
Is coffee in a cardboard cup (Mandi Patinkin, “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup”)

I spent days listening to songs with the word coffee. A Google search took me through 342 pages of coffee songs. Joy, depression, love and loneliness. I think every composer, alive and dead, was challenged to write a song with at least one reference to coffee.

Even Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata about coffee. According to Wikipedia, Bach regularly directed a musical ensemble based at Zimmermann's coffee house. Bach wrote, "If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roasted goat". (Wiki)

I could write about this all day. No end in sight.

Instead I will leave you with a playlist. Coffee, coffee, and more café!

Photos: Kay Adamson and Maureen Fitzmahan
Words by Maureen Fitzmahan