By ELIZABETH R. SPILLIA
correspondent@centrecountygazette.com
If you walk into Coco’s Coffee House in Philipsburg early in the mornings during the week, you’ll see a group of friends sitting together. They’ll be chatting and laughing, and they’ll probably invite you to join them.
Some members of the group have been meeting for morning coffee for more than 35 years. The list of past locations is long: The old C&M Dairy on Front Street, the Little Restaurant, Rachel’s Bakery, the Gaslight Café, Bock’s Tearoom, the Coffee Corner. During the height of COVID, they met for a time at Nittany Minit-Mart in Osceola Mills.
“Everywhere either burnt down or went out business,” says Darrell Hollis, an original member of the coffee crew.
“That became a standing joke with us,” adds Tucker Beck. “Seems like every place burnt down. (Coco’s Coffee House) keeps having us back. We can’t figure out why. Bill (DeBoer) has been real good to us here, he has. Sometimes we eat, sometimes we just drink coffee. He’s been very patient with that though. We try to go in the evening for supper, too.”
‘ EXTREMELY ACCEPTING OF EVERYBODY ’
“Most of the people are retired and got so used to getting up and going to work, they still like to get up and go somewhere,” explained Mayor John Streno, a more recent addition to the coffee crew. “They’re extremely accepting of everybody — it doesn’t matter, just somebody new to talk to. Once you get over that initial fear of talking to people you don’t know, people start hollering at you, ‘Come over here. Sit with us. We’re going to find out about you.’ We’re just nosey, you know.”
Bonnie Long fondly recalls her introduction to the gang. She had just sent her child to school for the first time and was walking along Front Street, upset. She stopped in at the Little Restaurant and was befriended by the group sitting there.
“It’s lonely at home, and it’s quiet; it’s not the same,” she said, adding with a laugh, “I sit with these guys because with them, I don’t look so bad.”
Joking is the coffee crew’s M.O. There’s a constant stream of playful banter and good-natured ribbing that everyone takes in stride.
Bruce Vandergrift was part of the group for a long time, and the members remember him warmly.
“We were the best of friends,” said Bonnie. “We didn’t always agree, but we were the best of friends. Usually, when you don’t agree, you stay away from each other. But we didn’t.”
“There used to be two Democrats at the table,” Tucker says with a twinkle in his eye. “One was a little iffy, and one’s a very staunch Democrat. But he takes it well, he does. I don’t think anybody holds a grudge when we get talking.”
“We disagree, but that’s all the farther it goes,” adds Jim Lefort.
ECLECTIC EXPERIENCES
Members of the coffee crew bring to the table a diverse mix of careers, backgrounds and experiences.
“I lived all my life right here,” says Tucker. “I was a lineman for forty-threeand-a-half years. Very proud of that. I was born and raised here, moved away a couple times, got homesick, came back.”
“How’d you get so old so quick?” someone chimed in.
Darrell ran a store on Front Street and started with the coffee group at the C&M Dairy.
“I was raised in New Hampshire,” said Darrell. “My wife is from here. I was in the Navy and her cousin brought me up here on weekends. I’m not a Yankee, I’m a damn Yankee. There’s a difference.”
Ken Williams was a mailman for a while and used to live locally, but since moving to Clearfield, he still comes over to visit with the coffee club a couple days a week.
“You don’t have to be a certain age to belong to this club,” says Tucker. “(Ken) is faithful to coming over to see us. We’re a pretty tight-knit group.”
Roger Cartright worked at Penn State for 30 years. He was born at home — one of the last babies born in Sandy Ridge.
“Before they had hospitals?” someone at the table wondered aloud — and attended a four-room school, with two classes in each room.
“You add all them years up, and as close as we can figure, he’s about a-hundred-and-eleven years old,” Tucker says. “He looks good though.”
Tucker said, though they’ve “lost a few” members over the years, “We’ve always had a good group.”
“They come and go,” said the mayor. “That’s the whole idea, when someone fades away, you have the memories, and we bring them up now and then, and that’s how it plays out in life.”
‘ GOOD NEIGHBORS ’
Jim joined the group when they were meeting at Corner Coffee, but added, “Well, me and Tucker’s neighbors.”
“Good neighbors,” Tucker clarified, and Jim agreed.
“We’ve all had big weddings in the families,” said Bonnie. “We help each other with stuff.”
On this particular day, the coffee crew was headed to one of the member’s church to “put a new light up and what else?”
No one wanted Tucker to preach a sermon.
Service to one another is not a foreign concept to this group, who have all taken turns serving in local government, on boards and as civic leaders. They remember Philipsburg in its heyday, when, as Darrell recalls, “There wasn’t an empty store in town,” and Tucker remembers, “There were more bars than churches.
“This town on Friday night you couldn’t walk up the street,” he said. “You had to get off the curb and walk up the side of the street — that’s how busy it was.”
When asked about various proposals currently pending in Philipsburg, the coffee crew is very pro most anything, “If it would help the town.”
“That’s what we miss about the old days,” Jim said. “Things were a lot simpler then. And it was alright. Not that there’s anything wrong with progress, but now you can’t keep up with it. It passes by.”
This group encourages the younger generation to volunteer, “be more helpful” and “get involved” in things like the Kiwanis Club, local fire companies and sportsman’s clubs.
And we could all learn something by sitting for a cup of coffee with this merry, welcoming band of model citizens.
“It’s only in small towns like this where you can have groups like this,” reflected Mayor Streno. “In big cities, it’s very difficult. Nobody even wants to talk to you, I know, I lived in one.
“It breaks up the day and beats the hell out of watching television.”
