Why Navy sailors love a filthy coffee mug

[rangerrebew]

Why Navy sailors love a filthy coffee mug
By Sarah Sicard
 Tuesday, Nov 7
 
Sailors call their unwashed coffee mugs "seasoned." (Photo via NavyHistory.org)
Athletes on a hot streak or headed to the playoffs in a given sport oftentimes opt out of shaving for fear of interrupting a routine that may throw a wrench into success. Such superstitions, however, are not limited to the participants of any particular sport.

Sailors, for example, but more specifically those those who have achieved the rank of chief, have one superstition that extends into the unsanitary. They never clean their coffee mugs.


The first time I learned of this I was 23 and working in an office in Washington. The director, a Navy veteran whose cubicle I shared, had a note stuck to his mug that read, “Don’t wash me.”

When I inquired, he informed me that it was something he picked up as a sailor. He’d done this with his black coffee for so long, in fact, that he’d simply grown to enjoy the taste of the weeks, months, or years old residue.

“It adds a lot of flavor,” he said.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/11/07/why-navy-sailors-love-a-filthy-coffee-mug/

[Smokin Joe]

I have my designated coffee mug, which gets washed about once a year. The idea is that the new coffee is strong enough to kill anything nasty that might be in the residuals from previous cups, even cold.

[roamer_1]

My camp cup, which is blue porcelain over tin, has never seen soap, though none of my tins have generally, the cup. certainly.

And it's right to call it seasoned. More along the lines of the same thing as cast iron ware, rather than adding taste. It is rather that it does not have the taste of the soap... albeit that it does 'normalize' like cast iron does.

THe same goes with my EDC go-cup and the favored morning cup, which has been my father's before me for many years - a White Castle cup.... only washed when a woman was around...

And my current one, 'Best Farter (Father)' cup, given to me by my daughter, which makes fart sounds every time you pick it up, and makes me giggle even yet, so much that keeping the coffee where it belongs is a problem... But due to its electronics, it has an excuse to avoid the sink.

[Smokin Joe]

My camp cup, which is blue porcelain over tin, has never seen soap, though none of my tins have generally, the cup. certainly.

And it's right to call it seasoned. More along the lines of the same thing as cast iron ware, rather than adding taste. It is rather that it does not have the taste of the soap... albeit that it does 'normalize' like cast iron does.

THe same goes with my EDC go-cup and the favored morning cup, which has been my father's before me for many years - a White Castle cup.... only washed when a woman was around...

And my current one, 'Best Farter (Father)' cup, given to me by my daughter, which makes fart sounds every time you pick it up, and makes me giggle even yet, so much that keeping the coffee where it belongs is a problem... But due to its electronics, it has an excuse to avoid the sink.

My sister got me a new cup to replace the old ones she had given me which somehow disappeared after the fire...(One had a KGB seal on it with 'made in China" on the bottom, the other had the CIA shield with no stated point of origin, which I found funny.)

It's from the Black Rifle Coffee Company, heavy stoneware, with a smiley face surrounded by the words "F*ck your sensitivity" around it, which is where my attitude is before the first cup...but is really a poke at all the snowflakes out there.

That's my 'home cup', the road cup is an old china cup that was once a premium for buying Merit Cigarettes (I quit smoking in 2006) so it's a survivor.

I have a couple of older restaurant cups around, too.

[roamer_1]

My sister got me a new cup to replace the old ones she had given me which somehow disappeared after the fire...(One had a KGB seal on it with 'made in China" on the bottom, the other had the CIA shield with no stated point of origin, which I found funny.)

It's from the Black Rifle Coffee Company, heavy stoneware, with a smiley face surrounded by the words "F*ck your sensitivity" around it, which is where my attitude is before the first cup...but is really a poke at all the snowflakes out there.

 

That's my 'home cup', the road cup is an old china cup that was once a premium for buying Merit Cigarettes (I quit smoking in 2006) so it's a survivor.
I have a couple of older restaurant cups around, too.

Funny how we're talking about this right now... I *JUST* found one of my old EDC road cups... For the longest time, I just used  my camp cup... and it sat laid over on the dashboard when it was not in use - forever.... That was back in the day, before travel cups were a thing, and nothing but a Blazer had cupholders...

As an aside, that was a coveted move back in the day.... to replace the seats in a Chevy PU with Blazer seats specifically for that dumass bucket in between the seats and it's cupholders... *FOR* the cupholders, mostly.... I can't tell you how many times I swabbed them things out....

ANYHOW, before travel cups and cupholders... I had this old plastic trailerhouse cup, red, made to look like stoneware, but plastic and light... Somewhere between my camp cup and travel mugs, I adopted that red cup... And it laid on the dash long enough to turn pink. I just found that cup the other day. I still have it.

I kinda miss the smell of coffee poured down the defroster vents.... That's a thing my lads will never know. 

[Smokin Joe]

I kinda miss the smell of coffee poured down the defroster vents.... That's a thing my lads will never know. 

Reminds me of spilled coffee....I was on my way back to North Dakota from Riverton, WY one winter. The temp in Riverton was 54 below when I left, and I was about to Shoshoni when the heater in my old van finally was keeping up with defrosting the windshield well enough that I dared pour a cup of coffee out of the old Stanley Steamer thermos I carried. (Otherwise the steam from the coffee would have coated the inside of the windshield with a thin layer of ice).

It was still plenty cold, but I was dressed for the weather. I set the cup on the doghouse, and poured a cup missing only a little bit. Screwed the top down on the thermos and took a drink, which was still a bit above lukewarm, getting a little of the missed coffee on my fingers.

About then the ceiling in that van started a weird squeaking, something which vehicles seem to do when it's that cold out, and I reached up to push on that perforated masonite headliner in there ('75 Chevy cargo van). Just about making contact, I could feel the drips of coffee on my fingers starting to freeze and got my hand the hell away from it. I was haunted by visions of driving through Northeast Wyoming in that weather with my fingers frozen to the ceiling....

I was on my way to warmer weather (it was only 20 below at home in North Dakota), but I had a lot of miles to cover before I got there.  Keeping those fingers free (and the skin on them) made for a much nicer trip.

[roamer_1]

Reminds me of spilled coffee....I was on my way back to North Dakota from Riverton, WY one winter. The temp in Riverton was 54 below when I left, and I was about to Shoshoni when the heater in my old van finally was keeping up with defrosting the windshield well enough that I dared pour a cup of coffee out of the old Stanley Steamer thermos I carried. (Otherwise the steam from the coffee would have coated the inside of the windshield with a thin layer of ice).

It was still plenty cold, but I was dressed for the weather. I set the cup on the doghouse, and poured a cup missing only a little bit. Screwed the top down on the thermos and took a drink, which was still a bit above lukewarm, getting a little of the missed coffee on my fingers.

About then the ceiling in that van started a weird squeaking, something which vehicles seem to do when it's that cold out, and I reached up to push on that perforated masonite headliner in there ('75 Chevy cargo van). Just about making contact, I could feel the drips of coffee on my fingers starting to freeze and got my hand the hell away from it. I was haunted by visions of driving through Northeast Wyoming in that weather with my fingers frozen to the ceiling....

I was on my way to warmer weather (it was only 20 below at home in North Dakota), but I had a lot of miles to cover before I got there.  Keeping those fingers free (and the skin on them) made for a much nicer trip.

I left my prints on a spud bar one winter... Probably '98.... They're still there. I reckon they'd come off if I sanded on it, but of course, I never have... Folks don't understand what happens when it's cold. REALLY cold.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I left my prints on a spud bar one winter... Probably '98.... They're still there. I reckon they'd come off if I sanded on it, but of course, I never have... Folks don't understand what happens when it's cold. REALLY cold.

 

My worst stunt was on an early horizontal well up here (before the Bakken by about 10 years). I was out at the shale shaker on the rig, working on the gas extractor, and dropped a bolt.
It landed in a bucket of diesel by the possum belly, and not registering mentally that that diesel was at ambient temperatures (-32 Fahrenheit), I slid up my sleeve and pulled off my glove and reached in and got it. Kinda like reaching into liquid propane. I got the bolt...but my armpit smelled like diesel for a week from shoving my hand up there to get it warmed up and get feeling back... Live and learn.