To get from Bangor to Rockland without a car, I use the Concord Coach bus, which leaves Bangor at 7:00 every morning. On weekdays, Bangor’s Community Connector bus gets me to the depot on Union Street in plenty of time for a cup of coffee and a doughnut.

I remember a time when coffee and doughnuts, along with orange juice and the Bangor Daily News, were available to bus passengers at no extra charge. Sadly, in part due to inane expectations that public transportation should somehow “pay for itself” (as if cars do), those small perks are no longer available. But there is a Dunkin’ Donuts within easy walking distance of the bus station, and on a recent morning after buying my ticket, I sallied forth.

The usual line of cars idled at the drive-thru. But the lobby was closed. A hastily scrawled sign apologized for the staffing shortage, assuring me that the drive-thru window and something called “on the go” were still available.

“What’s “on the go?” I asked the man in the car leaving the drive-thru

“It’s an app. You have to download it on your phone.”

“To get a cup of coffee?”

Now, I may not own a car, but I’m not a Luddite. I do own a smart phone, and it even has a few applications on it. (No one uses the full word, much as Dunkin’ Donuts has become simply “Dunkin’”.) But I had cash in my pocket and a bus to catch. In disgust, and with the faint beginnings of a caffeine withdrawal headache, I walked back to the depot.

What a sad commentary on these impersonal times in which we live. Service was available for cars and for cell phones, but not for human beings without a vehicle or the proper electronic accessory.

I don’t really have to point out a moral here, do I? Why not close the drive-thru when short of staff and require customers to use the lobby? It might take them a few more minutes, but so does walking or riding a bus to work, yet both are eminently more pleasurable that driving. And why are we all in such a hurry, anyway? Slow down and smell the coffee.