Read on for the definition.
I want to digress today and mention a venue that has a gallery wall where artists can exhibit their work. It is not up and running yet, but it looks very promising.
Schmooze, pronounced shh-mooz, is a NY word, and as I found just found out, also a Colorado and California word. Probably, it is not a Southern word. They like, “Chew the Fat” but they mean the same thing.
As you know, College Park is a tiny jewel, nestled in the Greater Orlando area. We are a kind of cozy community of 1950s-60s houses that are deja-vu for me but what the Millennials now love. Their word for it is Mid-Century. Many of our residents are second and third generation College Parkites and most went to Edgewater High School.
For instance, my home was built in 1962, complete with terrazzo floors, powder blue bathtub, that we never changed. That mid-century flavor is familiar to me because I grew up with it. It’s Happy Days happy.
Actually, most of CP is mid-century. When our homey Princeton Diner closed, we felt abandoned. It was our breakfast ‘schmooze’ place and definitely a College park icon.
Maybe most do not know it but The Princeton Diner left us to make way for expansion of our high school. We also said a sad farewell to the Dinner Theater. College Park Oldsters remember it well.
This is not a secret! There is a new eatery in town. I’ll tell you more later.
I won’t fool you. I’m not a born here resident. My daughter moved to our then College Park quiet town, after graduating from Stetson Law. She was hunting for a place in Orlando that reminded her of her former digs of Coral Springs, South FL.
Did you know, in the early seventies Coral Springs was chartered as a new city on the edge of the Everglades. We had 12,000 residents when moved there. If you didn’t meet people at soccer matches, you knew them from the Scouts. We all shopped at OUR tiny Publix. Memorably, does this remind you of the College Park teensy Publix that used small carts?
We followed our daughter to CP, or rather our baby grandchildren, to stake our claim here in 2003. It feels like home. Our mature grandkids say they want to live here forever.
Sadly or maybe not so sadly, College Park succumbed to growth, innovation and a new image of the 21st century modernism. Well, Happy Days are here again. Gone was the schmooze or as Southerners call it “chewing the fat”. Princeton Diner is gone but…..
We have a new coffee/schmooze eatery called ‘Cafe Linger’.
It’s actually a place to slow down, meet friends for a bite and enjoy a friendly atmosphere where we are not chased out. It’s old ‘College Park’ again. I discovered Cafe Linger on Edgewater Drive when a friend and I were looking to have lunch while searching out Central FL art galleries to exhibit my work! Eureka! Cafe Linger was a perfect mix for this.
As a matter of fact, I really do not get excited about eateries. This one has a variety of DIFFERENT eats. Yummy- tummy stuff. Healthy stuff. Besides, you can take your time to enjoy it. Our CP Linger’s atmosphere is may be more upscale- modern, and not the hole in the wall variety of the Village, but it has that homey feel. So, I decided to make my schmooze headquarters there.
No, this is not a paid ad. Actually, they probably don’t even know I blogged this. Happily, I love their concept, as it reminds me of my younger days in NYC, but with a mod feel. Ah, Excuse me. It’s time for a yum-brunch bite and an iced coffee. See ya.
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