Pluggers by Rick McKee for January 28, 2023

I have a mug from an election sixteen years ago – I feel myself slipping towards pluggerdom.

If I had a mug from a favorite diner, I’d let it be Denny’s or — here in Clark County, Washington — Kitchen Table Café (not that I know if they give away mugs).

My father has a couple of Whataburger mugs.

A plugger is likely a coffee chugger, whatever his mugger!

My favorite old coffee mug is black, because it doesn’t show staining with age….

My favorite old coffee mug is dark blue, used it when I was working …. now long retired ;-)

Mine is a Donald Duck mug……

Can’t call it my favorite, but I have a mug from a Navy contract that failed 38 years ago.

Still have my root beer mug from my chid hood

My favorite mug is my beer mug – 26 oz. I believe. Got it during an Oktoberfest in Madison, WI, back around 1990.

My son is 35 years old now, and when he was ten he gave me a Three Stooges coffee mug that I still use for my morning coffee.

Mine is a handmade one, picked up in a little shop during one of our annual summer car trips.

I still have glasses that they gave away at gas stations when you filled up.

Got that right

As Selma so aptly put it… I have underwear older than that.

why not? I have a few of my mom’s mugs…

Over 30 years ago for Father’s Day my son gave me what became my favorite mug. It shows a frazzled worker, with the In and Out baskets piled high with papers. Both the devil and the angel are saying “Quit Your Job.” Used it at work until I retired. Now it’s my Monday coffee cup, just in case I ever need reminding that I don’t need to go to work.

Or you last duty station, 27 years ago.

We have a collection of mugs on display in our kitchen. We used to buy them as souvenirs when we traveled when they cost a couple of dollars, five dollars would be the high end if they even ever cost that. They vary from NASA center in VA to Salem Witch museum in MA, but are mostly places in PA. We do not use them – just display them. (One is from the Smithsonian from a Star Trek exhibition decades ago when there was still only one Star Trek another is from a MASH exhibition at same.)

When we got married 44 years ago we decorated our apartment in low cost “modern cheap” (his choice at the time). We bought a lot of the “knock-down” furniture at a local home goods store and had to go to their warehouse to pick it up. Each time we did they gave us a mug with a floral pattern on it – pattern varied from mug to mug. We ended up with a set of 8 of them.

I was using one of them for my tea (neither of us drinks coffee and he does not drink any hot beverages) for decades. He decided it was too stained (umm, tea stains, that is what it does) and about 4 years ago made me start using a different mug. Now he is complaining about this one and that it, also, is not safe to drink out due to the stains – well, 6 more to go.

He also grew up in a house where “the good china” was NEVER used (nor was the living room and dining room). My family believes that if one buys it, it is intended to be used. It took him awhile to adjust to the idea of using those rooms and using the good china for holiday dinners (including anniversaries and birthdays if we are home).

Well, I used to go to diners, especially before I got married but I have no souvenirs. I am still a plugger anyway.

“Good memories.”

I got one, Shoney’s Big Boy.