People don't just want to go to The Second Cup or Tim Horton's or Coffee Time to get coffee. In the fifties coffee houses were synonymous with poets and folk music and intellectual types. This is certainly not true of Uxbridge's new scene.  Although lots of good gossip and strange conversations go on in these buildings, people there have not the pretension of being “intellectual” or “cool.”  Indeed many people are known to say, “I have no life so instead I'm in Tim Horton's on a Friday night.”

In Uxbridge even those who don't like coffee often talk of going out to a coffee place, if only to then order tea or hot chocolate. Just the fact that you can sit and talk seems to draw most people.  In some ways coffee shops are like a perfect school cafeteria.  These caffeine huts are not too crowded and they are inviting, although the decor consists of plain tables and chairs. Best of all you know that chances are after a night of coffee hopping you will have met at least one person you recognize as a fellow USS student.  That in itself is a strong social comment on the Uxbridge teen social scene, which perhaps suggests a lack thereof.

When the movie theater was built, everyone said, “Wow! Now all the teenagers will have somewhere to hang out!” This belief proved to have a number of inherent problems.  Probably the biggest problem is that you can't “hang out” there.  You go to the movie, watch it, and go home. You can't sit anywhere and talk about it, and you certainly can't sit outside the Roxy in winter. Most people include Mickey D's or a non-alcoholic beverage dealer in their plans of what to do after the movie.  Of course, another problem is that the theater has become a “cool” zone for pre-teens to be.

Where can you find the best coffee, cheap? Which coffee business has the best atmosphere?  I can't really comment on that, since I don't drink coffee, but some things are for certain.  McDonald's' coffee is a definite NO for any serious coffee lover. It's so bad, I can drink it!  Second Cup is definitely not your best bet for cheap, though you do get much better variety there -- their hot chocolate is the best.  As for atmosphere, Second Cup is so small you feel that the people behind the counter can hear anything you happen to be talking about.  Having Harvey's in the same sight line is also kind of bothersome.

Overall I still like Tim Horton's best, but only in Uxbridge.  Everywhere else it sucks. Everywhere else Second cup really rocks.  But then humans are creatures of habit, and Second Cup is new.  I personally prefer the big Second Cup in Pickering that is on the same road as the Pickering Mall.