Retired North State Teachers Spell It Out: F-U-N

By Doni Greenberg May 12th, 2009
published in online newpaper
A NEWS CAFE
www.anewscafe.com

Photo by Doni Greenberg

Thursday I borrowed wireless from Yaks on Bechelli Lane (thanks, Yaks!).

I managed to get some work done, despite my utter preoccupation with the coffee roasting process right behind my table. How that nice guy gets anything done is a miracle - everyone has a million questions - OK, I had a million questions.

Anyway, while there I also bumped into Mary Burns (second from the right in the above photo).

Mary and I have known each other since her kids (Scott and Heather) and my kids (Sarah, Josh, Joe) attended Redding Co-Op Preschool just a couple of years ago (feels that way sometimes).

coffee-guy

Photo by Doni Greenberg

Mary said she was there to meet her friends for their standing Thursday-afternoon Scrabble session.
Every Thursday?
Every Thursday.
I did what you would have done.

I stood on a chair and snapped the group’s photo. (One of the Scrabble-istas arrived too late for the photo.)

Then I asked if they would mind sharing their story with us.

You’ll find that story below. Enjoy.

Story By Patty Mullett

What do retired teachers do with their spare time? This group chooses to get together once a week and play Scrabble. They’ve gotten together since their kids were little. Between birthday parties, Brandy Creek outings, water slides - they named themselves “Pool Potatoes” and “Ladies of the Lake”.

Two years ago they started meeting at each others’ homes to play.

Now they meet at Yak’s Coffee Shop; it’s easier than cleaning house!

Photo by Claudia Hastings

The group consists of Ann Martin (actually still working at Parsons), Patty Mullett and Pris Brutlag, retired from Enterprise School District, Claudia Hastings from Evergreen, Mary Burns, Redding School District, and Viv Thompson from Junction School District.
They insist they’re learning new words by allowing the use of a Scrabble dictionary - mostly it’s just to get more points! But it’s really about catching up with gossip, sharing family stories and just having a lot of laughs (and sometimes winning)!

Claudia comments, "Now you see how exciting Redding. CA and my life are!"

thought for the day: "Tomorrow is one of the greatest labor saving devices of today."