Dream Bigger
The meeting comes to (dis)order
Every morning at 10 o’clock — except Sundays, when they’re supposed to be in church — the Old Goats gather at a Stephenville restaurant called The Feed Mill for their club meeting. All of them walk in, except for 97-year-old Hugh Wolfe, who’s wheeled in. He still shows up, though. It’s bad form to miss a meeting.
The first thing every member does upon arriving is throw a dollar bill into the center of the table. That’s the “rent,” one of the Old Goats explained They figure that if they’re going to monopolize the big table in the middle of the restaurant six mornings a week, they might as well kick in something extra toward the overhead. Coffee’s generally the only thing they buy, aside from arranging for the occasional birthday cake. The Old Goats have a peculiar custom regarding birthdays. The person celebrating a birthday buys the cake, instead of being treated to cake by the others. John Whiting explained the rationale: “You ought to be thankful you’ve got another birthday.”
I asked how long the Old Goats have been meeting, and the question set off a babble of speculation. Finally, J. Louis Evans, former Stephenville mayor, provided the definitive answer — since 1984. “There’s been a lot of turnover,” he said.
I asked the average age of the club members, and was told it’s 83.45. The answer came immediately, and with authority. Turned out somebody had calculated it recently.
Then I asked what they talked about every morning. The answers, in order, were:
“Women.”
“And weather.”
“Politics. We talk a lot of politics here.” (Safe to say, the Obama Fan Club meets elsewhere.)
“Sports. Current events.”
“We’ll talk about you when you’re gone.”
The Old Goats are all men of accomplishment — among them are two former academics, a one-time air traffic controller, and an insurance executive — and almost all are veterans of World War Two or the Korean War. But Wolfe has a special distinction, aside from being the oldest. He was the first football player from the University of Texas to be drafted into the National Football League. A running back, Wolfe played for the New York Giants, which traded away future U.S. Supreme Court justice Byron “Whizzer” White to get him. He came back to Stephenville, as did the other Old Goats who were born there. After the war, “we were so damn glad to get back we never wanted to leave again,” one Old Goat explained.
Club mascot, signed by all
The Feed Mill is their newest clubhouse. There have been at least a half-dozen other locations, “but nearly everywhere we drink coffee, the place shuts down,” a club member said. Another added: “Shuts down or boots us out.”
I asked if the Feed Mill owner is aware of the club’s track record. The answer? “We’re afraid to tell him.”
By 11 a.m., the Old Goats were preparing to leave. They needed to clear out before the big-spending lunch crowd started arriving. Apparently, all those dollar bills piled in the middle of the table only buys an hour’s rent.
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