| June 8, 2005
ROMEOs sport their own red
hats
By Karen
Feldman
The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press
|
Gannett News Service
Members of Retired
Old Men Eating Out, known as ROMEOs, eat at Hooters in Fort
Myers, Fla.
| They may wear
red hats and dine out en masse, but no one would mistake this group
for a chapter of the Red Hat Society.
They are, they will
tell you proudly, ROMEOs — Retired Old Men Eating
Out.
Ranging in age from 59 to 86, these residents of Fort
Myers, Fla., began their monthly lunch excursions in January.
"It started as the popularity of the Red Hat Society took hold
with the women," says co-founder Pat Darga. "Bob Beals and I were
sitting around talking and he says, 'we ought to start a group of
guys. We ought to call ourselves the ROMEOs.' "
So the group
was born in much the same way as the Red Hat Society, a loosely knit
network of women-only groups whose members don red hats and purple
dresses for their strictly social public forays.
The Red Hats now number some 1 million worldwide, but they, too,
began as a small group of friends who did lunch.
"We do it
for the comradeship," Mike Pastuch says. "Men are pretty much
loners. We have a few ha-has, a few drinks. It works out
nice."
Darga says they keep things simple.
"We have one rule: there are no rules," he says. "We don't have
any officers. We don't have any meetings. We don't have any dues. We
just sit around and say 'what do you want to do?' "
Their
only required uniform is the red baseball cap emblazoned with
"ROMEO," although "we're thinking of getting purple dresses for a
few of the guys," says member Dick Foster.
On a recent weekday, when their wives headed off to a theater
matinee, 14 ROMEO members carpooled to a Hooters
restaurant.
"We're old, but we're not dead," says Mike
Edmondson as a server in tiny, tight orange shorts and an equally
abbreviated T-shirt hoisted a pitcher of beer and handed full
glasses out around the table.
The men's conversation flowed
as freely as the brews.
Over plates filled with chicken wings, onion rings, Philly cheese
steaks and other manly dishes, they engaged in some good-natured
ribbing and discussed real estate, boating, upcoming trips, TV and
even American Idol.
|
