Coffee Klatch

I took a break on my motorcycle ride for coffee at McDonalds. I sat near a group of guys who were wearing the standard retired guys’ attire of Florida:  T-shirts, long shorts, knobby knees, and pasty skin.  There are similar coffee klatches everywhere on weekday mid mornings.  

They were comparing the business models of Walmart and Dollar Store, trying to ascertain which had the better bottom line. Their sources were like:

“I walked into a Dollar store and I saw….”

“My brother-in-law once worked for Walmart, and he said…”

“Don’t let anybody fool ya, these guys are all…”

Not exactly titans of industry.  It was more like those uninformed political discussions with raised voices and bug eyes, only more boring.  Honestly, I’ve known more interesting nursing home residents who couldn’t talk and needed help wiping the drool off their chins.  

I like good conversation about people we’ve known,  adventures we’ve had, and life lessons we’ve learned.  We could share our unrealized dreams or make up stories about the heroes we once were. We could talk about literature and movies. If we want to be bored, we could talk about our children and grandkids, but that would be okay.

Additionally, I don’t want to just hang out with old men. I like being with women, men, and children of all ages. I’ll especially want to talk with children.

I’m pretty close the age of these guys. In a few years, the highlight of my day could very well be coffee with other old people. That might be okay but I hope to hell that somebody will shoot me if my conversation devolves into this kind of mindless drivel.