The Coffee Group

After all you have heard about women gossiping, I'm here to tell you that farmers have the corner on the market when it comes talking.  Anywhere that there is farming done you will find a coffee shop where the men gather to share the "news".  It is there, usually in the morning and again in the afternoon, that they discuss the crops, weather, agriculture outlook, machinery, cattle, and a thousand other things that are central to farming.  It is also where they discuss their kids, grandkids, household chores, wives, neighbors, economy, politics,  and who-did-what-with-who!  There is no topic that is not fair game.

I guess it is a universal club with open membership because hubby located the coffee group on a visit to our daughter in Iowa and was instantly welcomed as one of the boys.  He would leave the house each morning to go to "town" to catch up on the local happenings.  During the afternoon, there would be an urgent need for a part that would require he and our daughter's father-in-law to stop work and head for town.  He may not have known the farming practices or the people that well but it didn't stop him from picking their brains and enjoying the fellowship.

Later we would bump into his "cronies" at church or in a restaurant and he would be greeted like a long lost friend.  "How's the repairs on the combine coming?" he would ask with familiar ease.  "Aw, we're going to have to go to the city for a part." would come the answer.  "Too bad," he would respond, "that'll keep you from finishing up that section this week."  I would glance at him in amazement.  He's chatting along as though he did this everyday and I know for a fact that he couldn't turn a combine around on our whole farm!

The coffee group will discuss any topic.  There is absolutely nothing that is off limits.  Hubby comes home with the latest news about marriages, divorces, babies, affairs, bankruptcies and get-rich-quick
schemes.  They discuss land sales, cattle sales, house sales, and business opportunities.  They decide the best plants for my garden, best time to prune the shrubs, methods of watering the garden, and canning recipes (honest).  When I was taking chemo they told me to drink grape juice (it worked).
When we first started to drive to Iowa they told us the route to take (it didn't work).  Whatever the question, you can count on the coffee group to have an answer.

With that in mind, if you are ever in a small town and enter the local restaurant to find lots of "gimmy" hats and bib-overalls, you have just found the coffee group.  Sit back and be prepared to learn all about the latest "news" and be highly entertained--just remember not to call it gossip!!