March 29, 2024

‘Grounds’ for discussion

Coffee group at Gibson Memorial Library has donated more than $22,000 over the past eight years. Money designated to computer technology fund.

Several men sit around a long table in a room dedicated to genealogy at Gibson Memorial Library Tuesday morning. The men sip coffee from mugs and crack jokes back and forth.

The men, making up the library’s coffee group, meet five times a week in the mornings to talk and drink coffee. They pay $1 per cup, and the money is put into a library technology fund.

As of Monday, $22,091.53 has been donated by the coffee group since its inception at the library.

Rick Rice, part of the coffee drinkers, laughed when he said the group begs people to be part of the group.

“Most people turn us down once they find out Bill (Heatherington) is going to be there,” Rice said. He then said, “Anyone’s got a dollar can come in.”

Group

The group is comprised of about 20 people total, with about 10 who show up each morning.

“We used to open at 10 a.m.,” Marilyn Ralls, library director, said, “But, we’ve been opening between 8:30 and 9 because that is their coffee time.”

The men range in age from 62 to 97 years old. A mortician, retired Marine and horse trainer are just several of the ranging occupations among the coffee drinkers.

“It’s a wonderful place to have coffee, and we’re doing a lot for the library,” said coffee drinker Ken Hudson.

Former police officer Bill Heatherington said it’s just a place to go for coffee and knowledge.

“You know, every place you go, in every town, you run into people who drink coffee somewhere. Maybe it’s Casey’s, maybe it’s someplace else. Everybody has someplace they drink coffee,” Heatherington said. “Two guys are 97 years old, and they have a lot of knowledge to pass around.”

The only topic the group avoids is politics.

“We don’t exchange rumors,” Hudson said. “We exchange facts.”

Rice replied to Hudson’s statement by saying, “That’s the biggest lie I ever heard.”

Coffee

“I’d say (we get) between $10 and $15 a day sometimes,” Ralls said. “They donate a dollar a cup, but they buy the coffee. We just kind of give them an area.”

Supplies for the coffee comes out of the fund, and each person donates $1 per cup in the mornings.

“They just always paid for a cup of coffee at Hanson’s, and I think it was a dollar there,” Ralls said. “If you pay a dollar here, it’s just a donation. We don’t charge them, but they throw it in.”

The money in the fund goes to computer technology at the library. Ralls said Gibson Memorial Library will have new computers in the near future.

“I’m just about ready to buy some new ones,” Ralls said.

Ralls also said the fund is not part of the building project, but is its own separate fund.

Background

“They started in September of 2006,” Ralls said. “They have their eighth anniversary next month.”

The group started at the former Hanson’s Drugstore. The drugstore was in the process of closing when the idea was formed to ask the group to meet at the library for their morning coffee.

“Ann Coulter came to me and said, ‘What do you think of the coffee guys from Hanson’s coming here when Hanson’s closes?’” Ralls said. “I said, ‘It sounds good to me.’”

Ralls said Coulter talked to the group, and they agreed to try coffee at the library and see if they liked it.

“I went out and got what I thought I needed,” Ralls said. “They liked it because it was carpeted, because so many of them don’t hear well anymore, so they just kept coming.”