"WHAT, NO DUNKIN' DONUTS?!"

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)

Yesterday, I received a pretty intense phone call from my daughters Amy (Baril) Julian and Rachel Baril. Rachel is currently visiting Amy in southwest Missouri. Despite the fact that both are well into their twenties and Amy is a mother, when as a Dad you receive an intense call from your offspring, well, to paraphrase the old E.F. Hutton ad, you listen!

Last year, Rachel went out to spend a week with Amy and David, and phoned me with the intense and very sad message that Amy and David's very wonderful Jack Russell Terrier named Sam had been hit and instantly killed by a car. So, THIS year, I was not sure what to expect, and I kind of took a deep breath inside.

"There's NO MORE DUNKIN' DONUTS!" they announced with all the fervor they'd have had as elementary school kids if I'd told them we weren't going to the beach after all, or something like that!

You have to understand that in New England (particularly Massacahusetts) Dunkin' Donuts is an institution! Every community of just about ANY reasonable size has at least one Dunkin' Donuts. Many of the larger communities have five or even ten Dunkin' Donuts locations. Today, the big attraction there is not the doughnuts. The doughnuts, in fact, were shrunk by D.D. a few years ago, and are more like dough-NETTES. They're airy and small. But it's the coffee and accessories that are the draw. The coffee is very good. Ice coffee is very popular in New England, even in winter. There are the bagel and croissant sandwiches. There are the Coolottas. It's very difficult for any New Englander to go for more than a few days without "hitting" a Dunkin' Donuts.

The one difficult thing about visiting in Springfield, Missouri is there is not one Dunkin' Donuts in the whole city of 160,000. When I was in Bible College there in the 1970s, there WAS one Mister Donut on Kearney St. Back in the 1990s, Mister Donut merged with Dunkin'Donuts, but that location did not survive. The only Dunkin' Donuts within a hundred miles of Springfield was on the "main drag" in Branson, Missouri, 45 miles to the South. Branson is a great place to visit. There are all kinds of shows and attractions. It's been called a "family style Las Vegas" or "Second Nashville". One of our favorite attractions is Silver Dollar City with its Marvel Cave. But perhaps our favorite was Dunkin' Donuts. It was NOT popular with the "locals". In fact, if you were in Branson during winter, there'd be a "Closed for the Season" sign at Dunkin' Donuts. The Branson location catered to tourists from New England, New York, New Jersey and other northeast locations. The last time I was there, I noticed a Cheverolet coupe with New Hampshire plates in the parking lot. You'd walk in there and hear the tourists with their Boston and Rhode Island and Bronx accents and feel at home. I remember ordering an ice coffee there. The kid who served me gave me a weird look. That may have been the only ice coffee he'd served that day. (They pushed the hot coffee at that location.)

Amy and Rachel were on a day in Branson, and went to Dunkin' Donuts only to find it's GONE. There is now some independent doughnut shop in its place.

The Missouri Ozarks are NOT a big "coffee and doughnut" location. Breakfast for the natives of that region would much more likely be biscuits and white gravy with a hot coffee; or maybe some grits; or something like that.

I still think with the right marketing campaign, Dunkin' Donuts could successfully penetrate that geographic area. Ice coffee was unknown there until McDonald's there introduced it at their locations a few years ago. While it's not as popular there as in New England, its sales are OK.

Well, I gotta love Dunkin' Donuts. It's hometown (world headquarters) is Canton, Massachusetts where I grew up!

And, I realize with all the tragedies we've seen in the news lately, "No Dunkin' Donuts" is not on the level of the destruction from tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, or in Monson, Massachusetts for that matter. And, this piece IS a bit tongue in cheek, but when you've got your heart set on Dunkin' Donuts, and it's gone; well, for any native New Englander, that's pretty much going to ruin your day!