Coffee, Conversation, Community ...

I know of three daily men’s meetings in Temple. Half dozen men meet at Bob Hale’s retirement office around 6 a.m. weekdays. At the same time a group meets at the Hop & Sack convenience store. Another group meets at the Town and Country Lounge later in the morning. The make up of these varies from day to day. I drop in on each of them occasionally.

My wife, Lois, meets with a group of women. She says, “We meet at the Senior Citizens Center weekday mornings for coffee and talk. This past Wednesday we had a large turnout: Me, Lois Glasgow, Hazel Knox, Opal Allen, Willie Richardson, Frances Zachary, Wanda Ille, Frances Rylant, Merlene Bean, Deanie Cox, Marilyn Johnson and Geraldine Cole. The number attending varies due to doctor appointments, grocery shopping and etc.

"Frances Zachary is recovering from a broken ankle after a fall. She is on crutches and making a good recovery. Deanie told us about her and Earl’s experience with a sick calf. (Earl’s arm is recently out of the cast. Cow kicked him. That’s another story.) They tried to drive the sick calf to the lot with the pickup. That failed. Earl let Deanie drive. He got out on foot. After knocking Earl down the calf went down. They injected the downed calf with about $40 worth of antibiotics and left it in the pasture. Next morning they found it dead. Had regrets about the wasted antibiotics. Frances and I can sympathize with that.

"Merlene is our historian. If we can’t remember a name or place from the past we ask her.
Attending these meetings makes me feel better to discover that I’m not the only one that is forgetful and slower that I used to be. We exchange recipes, household hints and I learned to put my fish oil supplement soft gels in the freezer to prevent fishy aftertaste. It works! We can laugh at ourselves and go home feeling better.”

I dropped in on them once. Was decently welcomed. Thought later that I should have told them to continue like I wasn’t there. That might get a better story.

--Harold Powell