The view from Mazatzal mountains in the south west of Payson to the Mogollon Rim in the north!

Welcome to the founding chapter of the ROMEO CLUB .org located in the town of Payson, AZ. We define ROMEO as the Retired Old Men Eating Out. We love every minute of it and invite all retired men to join us for lunch.

The club had it's beginning in 1987 as the inspiration of the late Chuck Clark and was located at the Twin Lakes Mobile Home Park. Chuck gathered together with his buddies: Sid Anderson, Wally Generet, Erik Carlson, and Everett Rhodes. At that time it was a sort of close group meeting at the park and sometimes going out to eat a meal.

Chuck moved to Star Vale Mobile Home Park in Star Valley, AZ and Hugh joined the group. With Hugh's influence the group quickly grew to 8 to 10 members and started a regular weekly lunch meeting at various local restaurants. At this point the group was having a lot of fun meeting with each other but did not have any identity. Then in 1993 Gene joined, pictured on right, having a background as a local president of a Teamsters Union, he thought it was time for the club to have a name. Gene saw Tom Brokaw on the television one evening interviewing a group of veterans in Boston for his book "The Greatest Generation" and the group referred to themselves as the Romeo Club. It sounded like a great name for our group and was adopted as the group's name from that point on.

To the left is a picture of Harvey the club spokesman who contacts the restaurants for reservations and fields calls from prospective new members. He also introduces new members at the luncheon meeting. To the right is a picture of the late Hugh Campbell one of our founding members. Hugh was an old hand at swapping stories, and could really tell some good ones, if you know what I mean. When he was at the meeting, we had the makings for a good time, we will all miss him.

The club has no rules, dues, or age requirements. We ask that you enjoy eating with other men and having a "GOOD" time doing it. Come when you can and as often as you can. We meet at a different restaurant every week (see restaurant and dates below). Our current group ranges between 16 to 24 men at the luncheon meeting. We start at 11a.m. and finish between noon and 12:30 p.m. We order off the regular menu and the restaurant prepares separate checks for each of us. There are usually several discussions of varied topics going on around the table at lunch.

Above are pictures of the group at the lunch table for our weekly meeting of "old friends" who enjoy each other's camaraderie and good food. We can sit and tell lies to each other and find joy in trying to believe in them. A reporter from the local newspaper, Payson's Roundup, recently joined our group for lunch to write a story about us. The story can be found at Romeos without rules by Carol La Valley, Roundup staff reporter.

We like good food at an affordable price. The restaurants have to be accommodating to a large group and have a good atmosphere with pleasant surroundings. The waitress must be very friendly and put up with the likes of guys set in their ways. We have found such a group of outstanding restaurants in the surrounding Payson area. See what our members have to say about the restaurants and they frequent them on other occasions with their families!

If their are five Wednesdays in the month go to our Blog to see where we are going!

Some of the members of the ROMEO Club are involved with other activities that are loosely associated with the club. We would like to add more of these activities as the members see fit. Here are some of the those activities.

This is a game of 7 card stud with nickel or dime bets and 3 raise max. When your hand is shown all 7 cards are viewed, just so a better hand is not overlooked (our old eyes sometime miss things). There are 6 to7 continual players and fill-ins are invited to play when the first string can't be there. We have so much fun at this game that hardly anyone misses a session. We all play by the "BOOK of GENE" (about to go to print at any moment) which has all the strategic plays to win on the last card. It also gives the finer points of lying about your hand and believing it yourself. Most of the players have had the luck of getting a Royal Flush, the last to achieve this was Harvey, and he saved the cards to prove it!!

Ray has been wanting to get a group together to play golf. He would like to play 18 holes on Thursday mornings twice a month at the Payson Golf Course . If you are interested, talk to him about it at the next lunch. 

Monday Morning Bowling

Harvey retired in 2004 and decided to start bowling. He has been bowling for two years now. "I never seemed to be able to make time for it when I worked." He also bowls on the Super Senior league at the alley on Thursday, but would like some bowling buddies to share in the fun or frustration on Monday. Rim Country lanes is running a early bird special on M-W-F 10 am to noon for a flat $5 per bowler. Anyone interested can get with Harvey at the next luncheon or meet at the lanes on Mondays 10 am.

The following section is devoted to any member that would like to promote an activity, event, charity, personal home business, or hobby.

Copyright © 2004 Romeoclub.org, LLC & revised 4/22/09