There are many things in this world that I think are unreasonable. Ever so often I write about one. I was reminded of this recently when I was looking over my tab at a nearby restaurant and noticed that my wife had ordered iced tea, something that many Southerners enjoy with most meals. Nothing unusual about that, but I had been charged $2.50 for her glass of iced tea.

I once had a friend who owned a restaurant in the NC Mountains and he claimed that one-half of his profits came through the drinks that customers ordered with their meals. Naive that I am, I assumed that he meant alcoholic drinks. I didn't realize that he was talking about iced tea and coffee as well. My wife no longer orders coffee with her meals since she was once charged $3.00 for that. But I hear tell that it is not unusual for today's yuppie-types to spend five or six dollars for a cup of coffee at places like Starbucks, etc. I hear a glass of wine costs somewhere between seven and nine dollars a glass at most restaurants.

In full disclosure, let me point out that this is being written by one who gave up drinking Cokes and other soft drinks when they went from a nickel to a dime per bottle. For many years, I have drunk nothing but water with all of my meals — at home or when eating out. I figure that if the Good Lord had intended for mankind to drink anything else, He would not have covered two-thirds of the earth in water.

Of course, coffee and iced tea prices are not the only items that have come under my stingy (Oops, I mean discerning) attention. Have you noticed the food and drink prices in movie theaters? I saw a woman with four kids spend over $30 at the refreshment counter the other day after she had already paid more that $25 for the movie tickets for her tribe. Of course, each chubby kid was hauling a tub-size load of junk food and pot-sized cup of soft drink into the theatre — to spill and make the floors even stickier.

Need I say that my wife and I don't go to the movies very often because even though we don't buy junk food once we are there, it still costs us ten bucks to see the movie and that's senior, middle-of-the-afternoon prices. We mostly wait for the movie to appear on television.

When I was a kid, my sister and I used to make the scene at the Kiddies Show on Saturday mornings at the local theater. It cost nine-cents to get in and a nickel for a box of chocolate-covered peanuts or raisins. We each left home with fifteen cents and had a penny left over when we got home. Even when my wife and I were dating, we paid 50 cents for a ticket and ten-cents for a Coke. It must cost a teenager well over twenty dollars to take a date to the movies these days.

I was outraged a couple of years ago at a local eatery when I had the audacity to ask for bread with my meal. Bread with a meal to Southerners is as fundamental as a fork and spoon. To my surprise, I was told I would be charged additionally for bread. We never went back and apparently neither did most other diners because the restaurant soon went out of business.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that proprietors of eating establishments don't open their places for fun. They need to make a profit or else they fail. But, anywhere from a $1.50 to $2.50 for a 15-cent glass of iced tea or coffee is way beyond reasonable. They could raise the price of the meal by a few cents; give free drinks and still make a profit.

When I was fourteen years old, I worked on Saturdays at a little neighborhood grocery store. I went next door to a small restaurant for lunch on my break and could purchase a home-cooked meal with a meat and three vegetables for 65 cents. And, that included iced tea, bread and banana pudding for dessert! Surely, things haven't changed that much. But on the other hand it was a simple menu. Today, it can be the same menu but each item has acquired a fancy name with adjectives such as “sautéed, glazed, marinated, puréed” or whatever.

I met my wife in a restaurant when we were students at Wake Forest College. The school didn't have a cafeteria and we all ate in local restaurants. I found an empty seat at the table with her and a couple of friends. We could get a “meat and three” for 75 or 85 cents including tea or coffee. Dessert was 15 cents extra. My wife and I are still in the habit of not eating desserts with meals because we were both on college-life budgets and never ordered dessert.

My wife often accuses me of living in the past. And I suppose I am. But more than two dollars for a glass of tea or a cup of coffee!

Come on. Give me a break!

John Brock is a retired newspaper editor/publisher and college professor. He can be reached by mail at this newspaper or by Email at: brock@johnbrock.com