Friday, March 30, 2018

This is the retirement version of "Sweet 16" ......

Last Friday of each fiscal quarter. 

 March, June, September, and December. 

 Easy to remember.

 The group of retirees from the Post and Courier have it marked on the calendar. 
And they wander over to Mt. Pleasant to the Liberty Taproom a bit before lunchtime to see old friends, do some catching up and lots and lots of "whatever happened to..." and "Remember the time we..."

 We had 16 members of the "134 Gang," gather around noon today.*

 Some admitted it had been a year since they last came to the quarterly lunch. Others seldom miss any of these good friends gatherings.
I must have missed a meeting or two because for many years I was named the "contact guy" who alerted members of these 4x a year functions, mailing out reminder postcards and seeking elusive email addresses.

 The others tell me the first gatherings were at the old Ryan's Steakhouse in West Ashley and then it moved to Mt. Pleasant at what used to be the restaurant now called Harbor Breeze next to the Omar Shrine Temple. 

 Today at Liberty, our server stepped back and took the group photo. 

 I had finally realized I was NOT in the group photos because I usually was the guy holding the camera.

 Well, I am a photographer.

 Not only do I now hand over the camera - or Smartphone - for an overall photo, I no longer send out the notices and reminders. 

Norman Newton took on that challenge and does a great job of informing the "members" of the upcoming event throughout the year.

 Today, Good Friday, some members chose fish and across from me, I saw a full plate of what I'll just call the Codfather.

 To maintain my determination to avoid salt, my chicken club came with broccoli instead of those delicious-looking fries. What willpower!
Oh, as you looked at the group shot you may have counted only 15 members in attendance.

 Latecomer David MacDougall completed the Sweet 16 number as he was handed a menu and encouraged to try and catch up.

 Tough room!

 Again, ALL of the lunches were paid for by a member who tries to remain anonymous. He has done this for the last 4 or 5 lunches.

 I shook his hand and thanked him. We all did.

 There are no secrets here, we're newspapermen.

 (Click on the photos and links for more details.)

 Glad you were able to stop by for our quarterly event. 

 As the saying goes.."Newspapers have been very, very good to me."

 *134 is the address of the P&C building/plant on Columbus Street as well as the address for decades on Meeting Street.

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posted by chuckography @ 10:03 PM

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