The breakfast club

Mike Walker and Jim Crisp have been enjoying the same cup of coffee for more than 40 years.

Sitting at the lunch counter of Sutton's Drug Store Walker Crisp and other regulars spend their weekday mornings sharing old stories debating politics" cracking jokes and only stopping to feed parking meters to keep the conversation going a little longer.

""We've become sort of an extended family over the years"" Walker said.

The ritual began in the 1960s when Walker, now a chemist, was a student and vice president of the Student Peace Union at UNC. As a political activist, he frequented the Carolina Coffee Shop, where many famous guest speakers visited during their stay in Chapel Hill.

Through these speakers, Walker began his political conversations with Crisp, then an insurance salesman. Others joined in, and eventually the two moved their conversations across the street to Sutton's Drug Store.

They do have the cheapest cup of coffee in town"" Crisp said, laughing.

Over the years, people from all walks of life joined Walker and Crisp at the counter. The group, now comprised of professors, businessmen and retirees, maintains a tradition which is synonymous with the Chapel Hill sunrise.

There is no application. There is no member initiation. All they ask is that you come to the counter with something to talk about.

And while the conversation is generally lighthearted with a few personal jabs here and there, occasionally the conversation can get heated, Crisp said.

Sometimes we can push it a little too far" get people a little angry" Crisp said.

Crisp and Walker said once a man left an uneaten sandwich when trying to catch a bus. When the bus driver told the man to retrieve his sandwich, he reentered Sutton's to find Crisp with half the sandwich hanging out of his mouth. Crisp made a dash out the back door to avoid the enraged customer.

The great thing is" you can walk out the door and come back the next morning and everything is forgotten about" he said.

For the men and women who have become regulars at the Sutton's counter, the early morning camaraderie is a necessary part of their day, said Bob Epting, a Chapel Hill attorney and a Sutton's morning regular.

While Epting joined the morning tradition out of convenience, with a law office at one end of Franklin Street and the courthouse at the other, Sutton's became the center of his day in more ways than one.

It's a good place to take the pulse of Chapel Hill"" Epting said. It serves as the interface between campus and the town. You get something here that is far more important than a national championship.""

Sutton's Franklin Street location allows for a mixture of people and views"" Epting said.

""The courage people show to come here every morning and speak their minds shows real human progress"" he said. What goes on at that counter is a little bit of what Chapel Hill is about.""



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