Talk of Yankees stumbling, jerks driving, and flea markets returning

Do you know what day it is — do you know what day it is? Nope, it is not Wednesday; it is Tuesday, Aug. 16, and the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Your Way Café in Schoharie.

This Tuesday, the scribe made it and the notes will be firsthand, if that means anything. Only one hearing aid is working, and even that doesn’t mean much — it is still all noise and this scribe tries to filter out words here and there.

One conversation was on the Yankee baseball team and how they seem to be falling apart. It looks like there are a few Yankee fans in the group, but the Mets did not seem to have any, at least any that were as vocal as the Yankee fans.

Apparently the Yankee baseball team was cleaning house and way ahead in league standings. Then, according to these fans, they (top Yankee bigwigs) thought there were better players out there and so the Yankees went after them. Now the team with all these new hot-shot players is worse than the ones that got them on top in the first place.

These fans think management should have left well enough alone and the team would still be going great guns. Then again, what does the scribe know at his age? At the ages of the OFs, none of them could hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball.

Fickle weather

Rain this year is a scarce commodity in many areas of the country, and in other areas way too much rain is falling. One local storm was discussed at Tuesday’s breakfast and this storm apparently hit one very small area in Schoharie County.

One OF said it was right over his house; another OF who doesn’t live that far away did not get a drop. The first OF said there was thunder, lighting, wind, and rain by the bucket for about 20 or so minutes, and then it was done.

Gone! Leaving sunshine and wet grass like someone turned off a faucet and turned on the heat.

Driving discourse

Another OF told of his planning for taking a thousand-mile trip to visit relatives that he has not seen in years. It is good to plan trips like this while the OFs are young enough to drive and still enjoy it.

Driving, to many of the OFs, is getting to be nothing but a chore. Too many cars are on the road, and all these cars seem to know where they are going and have to get there in a minute or so.

One OF thought differently. This OF said he has observed driving habits for a long time, and part of his job was driving. This OF said that most drivers behave themselves; it is the occasional jerk that causes all the problems.

Watch a busy street out of a window and note how most vehicles behave the same way in terms of their speed, stopping distance, start-up, and all the drivers’ abilities. This is regardless of age, sex, race, education, or physical ability. On an interstate, it is basically the same.

But don’t forget everyone should watch out for the occasional “jerk.” (The scribe’s wife says, when we OFs were young-uns, weren’t we all jerks, and in more ways than one, she added.)

Flea markets return

It seems the “pandemic” as it is now termed, was more pronounced than when the OFs were going through it. Some of the OFs feel we are still in it.

However, a good number of OFs in our group are flea-market aficionados and say many of their haunts are back in business. Who would have thought during the two years of COVID that this type of business would also become a victim and dry up? But, according to some of the OFs the flea markets are back and seem to be doing well.

The OFs are happy that the number of vendors and those attending the place where fleas can be purchased have also increased. One OF said he thinks any events like this are well attended because people are just glad to get out.

Another OF mentioned he thought that flea markets, garage and estate sales, and auctions will do well right now because buying used items is going to be the thing to do, mostly because buying new is too expensive.

One OF who knows quite a bit about this example of merchandising says it always has been this way. This OF said there are a lot of good, used, high-ticketed items out there that many people miss out on.

The OF said, if young people are looking to furnish their first place, the best store to go to is the auction house and bid against a dealer. The OF said, that way, the young people will generally be able to purchase good used items at less than cheap new items in a regular store.

This scribe thinks this is much easier said than done. It might be best to go with someone who knows the ropes before jumping into this game on the first shot.

Those OFs who were so old that they are old enough to be auctioned off as antiques but instead were at the Your Way Café in Schoharie were: Jake Lederman, Wayne Gaul, Ted Feurer, Rick LaGrange, Miner Stevens (who was voted the oldest person with a beard at the Knox bicentennial; Miner was at the breakfast sans beard), Joe Rack, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Doug Marshall, Jake Herzog, Marty Herzog, Pete Whitbeck, Bill Lichliter, Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Duncan Bellinger, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Elwood Vanderbilt, Rev. Jay Francis, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Ed Goff, Johnny Dap, and me.