134 GANG (P&C Retirees)

The retired guys at The Post and Courier now call themselves "The 134 Gang" and meet quarterly in Mt. Pleasant at Liberty Taproom & Grill.

Ladies also retire from the Charleston, SC family-owned newspaper but they have their own auxiliary group.

The long time address of the paper was 134 Meeting Street and, when the new plant was built further uptown, they kept the address as 134 Columbus Street.

I was invited to join 8 years ago when I retired.

At that time in 2004, the men were meeting at Ryan's on Highway 61 in West Ashley.

Prior to that, they had gathered on the last Friday of the month quarterly at The Grille next to the Shrine Temple on Patriot's Point.

Shortly after I became a member, the site was moved back to The Grille where I attended one Friday every three months for 5-6 years.

I must have missed one of the January, April, July or October meetings.

I became the guy who was in charge of making the arrangements and mailing out the notices.

Note to self: never miss a meeting.

I really didn't mind because they are a nice group of men and I had worked with some of them.

A lot of stories are told at these informal lunches and one of the best was when an editor said he had a rare opportunity to say "Stop the Presses!"

Unfortunately, not realizing the time, when he called down he was told "They haven't even started yet, you ass."

January a year ago, the restaurant on Patriot's Point Drive closed and the gang had to move again.

Happily, we now have a nice space in the Raw Bar at Liberty Tap with plenty of room to move the tables and chairs around.

The whole purpose is to meet with old friends and workmates to catch up and reminence about "the time so and so did so and so."

Oh, and to have a delicious nice relaxed lunch.

Today, the General Manager Michael Ball wrote a welcome message on the chalk board in front of the Raw Bar.

Our server T.J. helped set up the room before the first members arrived.

Water and sweet tea was being served around the room when I reminded them that Liberty brews its own craft beers and I ordered a dark stout with my lunch.

My camera has a setting to create a "fisheye" lens effect so the shot at the top of a "a circle of friends" was taken with that, causing a circular look.

Appropriate.

Here are a few more shots taken today.