Where everybody knows your name

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

No matter where you are in Ormond Beach, you can always find a friendly face.

Personally, I don’t consider Ormond Beach a small town. I mean, once you’ve driven from Tomoka State Park to Destination Daytona everything pretty much feels a million miles away. The twenty-minute traffic lights don’t help either, but we’ll save that for another column.

Even though Ormond isn’t small in size, it’s small in strangers. In this beach town, it seems like everybody is connected in some way or another. Whether I’m interviewing someone or just buying groceries, I always discover a new twist in the Ormond Beach social circle. My current favorite connection is Ed Kelley’s to Taylor Swift. His famous son, Brian Kelley, was on stage with Swift during the New Years Eve show. I don’t think anyone’s going to beat that anytime soon.

A recent trip to Starbucks just validated the “Cheers-like” atmosphere that inhabits this town.

There’s a colorful carousel of people that come through Starbucks Coffee on West Granada Boulevard. Even on a Monday afternoon, where the majority of nine-to-fivers are simply stopping in for their lunch break, nobody is in a rush to leave. Oh, and almost everybody greets the barista by her first name, which I think is Sharon.

One woman walks in smiling with her baby, whom she immediately shows off to the barista who might be Sharon. They chat about daycare and coffee (I don’t know if that’s last one is really true, but I think I’m safe in saying so), until the smiley mom hops in line for her afternoon pickup. It seems as if every other person who comes through this establishment knows someone behind the counter. Hugs and high-pitched “hellos” are exchanged as frequently as credit cards and cappuccinos.

One man feels so comfortable, he leaves his laptop unguarded for at least a half hour while he makes a milk run for the barista. One can assume that only a current off-duty employee would have the confidence to do that. Maybe if he had on the signature black hat and apron, I’d recognize him.

Due to the slight change in sunny weather, there are an unusual amount of people in bathing suits. Their hair drips from the salt water, causing small puddles on the floor that are soon labeled by a yellow caution sign. In the store at the exact same time is a woman with pink flip flops, wet hair and a tye-dye beach coverup and a blonde woman with business pants and a heavy white coat. The contrast of Florida’s current weather patterns can be visibly seen inside an Ormond Starbucks. I’ve only been sitting at my computer pretending to work for half hour and I’ve already witnessed so much.

My short travels and story assignments this week all seem to have a theme: community-involvement. Whether it’s dedicating a few days of your week to working at a community thrift store (see page three), helping out an employee who was diagnosed with cancer (see page one) or simply getting to know the name of your barista, giving back does so much for a town — and ourselves— than we realize.

DB Pickles Owner Pete Polzella said it perfectly in an interview we had this week: “If we’re not using our time to help other people, shame on us.”