Turning 18 meant a Hedrick beer, turning 80 means cupcakes, blessings, and praise
DUANESBURG — A special Tuesday at Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner awaited the OMOTM when they arrived for their breakfast on July 16. The first thing we noticed was a “Happy Birthday” banner stretched across the far end of the room.
Word spread quickly around the room which OF among us was celebrating becoming an octogenarian. This short-lived mystery was solved as we all signed a birthday-card poem for a certain John Dab, current age octogenarian. Happy Birthday, John!
The OMOTM have our own pastor who said a few nice words about John. Even John’s wife, Barbara, joined us and had some nice things to say about her husband. Enjoy this day, John; it is an unbelievable trifecta to have all the OMOTM; a man of the cloth, a pastor no less; and your wife all praising you and saying nice things, all at the same time! Amazing. Congratulations.
I can remember when a certain drinking establishment in Albany would breathe a sigh of relief when yet another customer would celebrate turning 18, the legal drinking age long, long ago. Something tells me that most of the OMOTM can absolutely remember where they were when they turned 18.
Now, 62 years later, we turn 80 and we are not so much glad that we can legally have a beer (Hedrick’s beer if you were in Albany), we are just glad we are still here to toast our OMOTM friends with a cup of coffee and enjoy some special homemade cupcakes and cookies provided by Chris at The Chuck Wagon Diner and listen to a special poem written by our own Poet Laureate, OF Jake Herzog.
By the way, the Hedrick’s Brewing Company had a good long run in Albany from 1891 to 1965 with time out for the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) from 1920 to 1933.
History lives
Also special today was seeing the Scribe Emeritus already sitting at his regular normal place when I walked in. He had emailed me that he had something to show me but I was not expecting to see him this week. I thought it was next week.
After breakfast, I followed the Scribe to his car and he handed me a three-ring binder labeled OMOTM: Book 1. What a treasure!
I now know who the Founding Fathers were. There were three of them — Curly, Moe, … — just kidding. All will be revealed in due time.
A quick glance answers some other fun facts, like all the places where they have been well fed on Tuesday mornings.
There used to be officers of the OMOTM, and to demonstrate how the OMOTM have been a serious organization for all these years, our Scribe Emeritus wrote, “John Williams, being the youngest, has permission to keep a record of jokes and stories told and after the third time he can interrupt and say, ‘We have heard that before.’”
That was taken from an OMOTM column dated Jan. 15, 1998.
I guess this suggests that I may be writing this column for a bit longer. I used to worry about running out of things to write about (not to worry about with this bunch) but with this binder I am good to go forever! Here is a quick example.
Some, or all, of the OMOTM were getting a little confused as to where they were all supposed to meet for breakfast on a particular Tuesday, which resulted in these few paragraphs appearing in The Altamont Enterprise on May 28, 1998, under the heading of “Old Mountain Men,” headlined: “The Old Men of the Mountain are back together.
“This week they met to try to solve the problem. Their business meeting consisted of having John Williams (future scribe) draw a circle on a napkin with the locations of the restaurants they frequent around the circle. A discussion developed on whether to follow the circle clockwise or counterclockwise.
“It was noted that the left-handed old men said counter-clockwise and the right-handed men said clockwise. Herb Wolford (Founding Father and first president) is looking into a government grant to study this further. Is this a medical discovery or just a brain malfunction?
“Paul Giebetz (Paul is head of transportation. He decides whether to drive or fly, but he decides just for himself) will make copies of the napkins for each old man, with arrows pointing clockwise around the circle so the left-handed old men will end up at the right restaurant.”
Those OMOTM who came to the birthday party were: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Miner Stevens, John R. Williams, Ted Feurer, Jake Lederman, Peter Whitbeck, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Kevin McDonald, Gary Schultz, Jake Herzog, WarrenWillsey, Russ Pokorny, Roland Tozer, Paul Guiton, Roger Shafer, Glenn Patterson, Joe Rack, Mark Traver, Pastor Jay Francis, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, Lou Schenck, John Jaz, Herb Bahrmann, John and Barbara Dab, Dave Hodgetts, Bob Donnelly, Frank Dees, Henry Whipple, and me.