Everybody is Welcome!

Diversity has it's good points. It can how ever have some challenges. Fred's News was no exception. It's customer base was as diverse as New York City. Local teens could be seen every evening hanging out in front of the place. Emil would always let them put the food charge on their tabs. Most of the time they would pay by week's end. By day this well known hot spot was a busy coffee shop but by night it had became a hang out for the young people. Although it was a way of life comparable to "Happy Days" many townspeople began to think of it as a nuisance. It was probably one of the main reasons the brothers decided to sell. Emil felt he was getting to old to deal with the issues. The vast majority of the young patrons eventually grew older and moved on. However their were a few that rebelled when the brothers "sold out" to us. Our first Halloween as owners we decorated the inside, much to the delight of our patrons. We invited everyone to bring their families and get their treats at Fred's. The Jack-o-Lanterns were set out and the young children arrived. It was a great night but we knew that some of young teens were upset that their "hangout" was a thing of the past. We had encouraged them to participate but we would no longer accept their unruly antics as the norm. True to form later that night they "egged" the beautiful front windows. They had no idea we were watching from the upstairs windows in the dark. Of course the local resident trooper was called. After asking us if we wanted to press charges we adamantly said "no, just have them wash and clean those windows!" Needless to say, he rounded them up and watched as every last bit was cleaned. Not the easiest job trying to remove dried egg yolk and slime from cold plate glass! I do believe this was the turning point in our relationship with the group. Many returned as regulars and enjoyed the movie nights with free popcorn. Eventually they all began to grow up and returned as the morning regulars, talking and laughing about their antics during their teen years.

Another group called the "old guys" would meet every afternoon. They talked about everything "back in the good old days". The highlight of their day was to shake dice for a cup of coffee. This dice game had been started by the brothers in their early years. It was five dice in a leather cup. The cup had been made fifty years earlier out of a belt off one of the machines used in the old Baltic Mills, a former textile mill that was once the center of the Town. Let me tell you those gentlemen took their dice game very,very seriously!