I didn’t realize there are two types of people–those of us with parents telling us always to use coasters and then everyone else.

I soundly fall under the coaster upbringing and diligently passed it on to my children. My father always described furniture by its wood type, not for its function. We didn’t eat at the kitchen table but at the oak table, or I’d head to the room with the tigerwood maple bureau. The biggest takeaway was never leaving a drink on any wooden item, no matter what it was called, without a coaster.

Coaster is a curious word. In addition to defining an item designated to protect against condensation, the word means “with minimal effort.” So, by definition, there isn’t a reason people can’t place a coaster under every glass on a wooden surface–just saying. It doesn’t take any effort.

Any word coined in the 1700s can have dubious origins, but coasters are said to have originally come into use to allow wine bottles or decanters to slide (coast) around a table after the servants retired. Heaven forbid hosts walked around a table filling their guests’ drinks. Additionally known as beer mats and saucers, the original items guarded drinks’ top and bottom. No matter their lazy beginnings, coasters protected beverages from dirt and bugs falling into the glass and table spills. The gadget is the predecessor to a slippery polyurethane bar finish and the bartender’s ability to slide the beverage to the customer, like in a Wild West movie.

I recently discovered that my children’s friends mock me for my constant reminders to spread the good word, “if in doubt, put a coaster under it.” My children will tag me in photos labeled #coasters. They send me memes, but I don’t mind being the tail-end of any good joke, as long as it shows the sweaty drink sitting on top of, you guessed it, a coaster.

Don’t get me started on the people who visit and manage to place a glass everywhere but on the coaster. I can have a table filled with bar mat souvenirs, and friends deliberately move a coaster aside to place a drink directly on the table. I don’t understand. Do they not see the white rings caused by previous drink condensation? Those white marks are not cup holders. I don’t have time to refinish the furniture. Most of it came with preexisting rings. Let’s not add to the chaos. Please just use a coaster.