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The Enterprise |
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Table talks By Alice C. Elwell, Enterprise correspondentMIDDLEBORO — It seemed fitting that one member of a group called the R.O.M.E.O.s would order oysters for his lunch at Lindsey's restaurant in Wareham on Wednesday. And when another member sampled oysters for the first time in his life, he asked, "When do they start working?" What was unusual about the lunch was the range of ages, from a young 69-year-old Joseph Furtado of Taunton to the senior member 83-year-old Joseph Burke of Taunton. It was 77-year-old Adrian Carvalho of Raynham who was coaxed by 80-year-old Harold Rogers of East Taunton to try the oysters. "They're better than clams," Rogers said, and Carvalho agreed. The men started meeting years ago when coffee was 29 cents at MacDonald's in Raynham. The informal group of retired teachers, cops, machinists, chicken farmers and office managers started dropping in daily for a cup of coffee and a chat. "My wife would ask if I was going," Burke said. "And if I said no, she said, 'Oh yes you are.' " "We'd all be in the nut house if not for this," Burke added. R.O.M.E.O. stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out. As they became regulars at MacDonald's for their morning coffee, another customer, Maria Yelle of Taunton, penned a poem that ended: "The Romeos know what success is all about!" "It's an important part of our lives," said 76-year-old Earle Blackwell of Taunton. Blackwell said the group has dined all over the region, from the Officer's Club in Newport, R.I., to the Monponsett restaurant in Halifax. "We've hit them all," Blackwell said. Carvalho said he was thrown out of one fancy waterfront restaurant in Plymouth. "They wouldn't let me in, I was wearing a cap," he said. "Each month we've got one more reason to live, meeting next month," Blackwell joked. "We solve all the world's problems, financial, health, sexual ..." joked Taunton resident Joseph Castro, 77. The group of retirees meets monthly for lunch, and there is no bland food for these men. The food Wednesday included fried clams, fish and chips, scallops, shrimp and lots of onion rings. The men talked of the realities of getting old. "I look in the mirror and tell my wife, 'I'm getting old, I look like an old man,' " Burke said. He said he stills drives, but limits it to "around town." Some have witnessed "firsts." Carvalho worked in computers in the 1940s for Reed and Barton. "They were huge, had one disk and so slow you could see the arm reading and writing," he said. Furtado worked 40 years for Texas Instruments. "They were the first privately owned nuclear fuel company," he said. Furtado now spends time sailing, building furniture and talking about the tomatoes he used to grow. He doesn't work his 14-acre farm any longer, but said his wife "still does the rhubarb." But none miss working, they're all too busy sailing, woodworking, baby sitting or racing pigeons, as Rogers does in his spare time. "I had a hawk sitting on the coop this morning," he told his cronies. "I can't shoot them, so I chase them." Rogers races his pigeons with the Rhode Island Pigeon Racing Club, and owns about 75 today, despite "the hawks eating them up." Howard LaMountain, 81, of Taunton taught sixth-grade science and math in Raynham and said his last 15 years of teaching were "the best ones." He said of teaching, "My main purpose in life was to build up their (students) ego." A veteran of 29 years on the Taunton police force, 74-year-old Everett McGovern said times have changed. He said when he started his career, if children acted up, the parents would discipline them. "Now they never side with police, they say the police are picking on their kid," he said. LaMountain is a disabled World War II veteran. "I took a grenade 20 inches from my foot," he said. Looking straight ahead, he said, "I shot the Japanese in the head to pay him back." Others had happy memories of the service, such as Furtado who was stationed in Morocco during World War II and tells of visiting "Gib" or Gibraltar. "I was in the Navy and all I did was fly," he said. Robert Castro, 73, of Raynham panned for gold in Alaska and told of a huge hole in the Aleutian Islands where the military buried surplus World War II machinery. Others stayed stateside for the war. Joseph Correia, 82, of Middleboro was born legally blind, but said he was part of the war effort as a chicken farmer. He still farms a bit at the Clay Street home where he built "everything but the chimney." As the waitress suggested desserts, there were chuckles when Jell-O was mentioned. None ordered the Jell-O, but several asked for Boston cream pie or bread pudding with caramel sauce and whipped cream. "Everything in moderation, even women," quipped Blackwell. |
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The Enterprise, 60 Main St., P.O. Box 1450,
Brockton, MA 02303-1450 |
