At Starbucks on a Saturday Morning, Remembering

I am sitting right now inside my favorite Starbucks, at Magnolia Parke here off 39th Avenue in northern Gainesville on a Saturday morning, relishing my weekend off from work.  This particular Starbucks is apparently the favorite of many others, because ever since I came in today the place has been packed with customers.  Also, at least as far as the circles of people I know are concerned, when someone says "Let's meet at Starbucks", this is the Starbucks they are usually talking about (and Gainesville has many of them).  It has a bit of personal history for me: right after it first opened in 2000 I would come in regularly to study (and naturally drink coffee) as I finished up my history degree at the University of Florida (on a part-time student basis, something that I wonder if they'll still let you do).  They had as manager a guy named Marty, who "got it" when it came to making a business appealing to the public and making customers feel welcome and valued.  It was this same Marty who, just a few years later at a different Starbucks location on Newberry Road, suggested to a couple of joggers working at the nearby LifeSouth blood donor organization (which replaced Civitan here in Gainesville) that holding an annual marathon to publicize LifeSouth and its mission would be a good idea.  From that simple, casual conversation arose the annual Five Points of Life Marathon/Half-Marathon/5K event held in February (and in which I ran the half-marathon race in 2010 and 2014).  Later he was transferred to another Starbucks store on the other side of town...and then disappeared.  Nothing dire, I'm happy to say...just that he was no longer working for them, for whatever the reason(s).  I never did find out what happened to him.  Maybe he had badly screwed up or antagonized somebody above him in the company, maybe he went on to better things...or maybe both or neither of these happened.  But regardless of the reason for his leaving, I did consider him to be a good man who cared about his customers...and I wish him the best...