Acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out, the ROMEOs club gathers in Pecan Plantation as a diverse group with perhaps a slightly warped sense of humor. This group enjoys lunch and fellowship, plus offers some rather weird “programs” just for fun.

Romeos have only one rule and that is—there are no rules! No matter what the occasion, an irreverence to detail and decorum are our hallmarks.

One day in mid-2003, Jim MacLea suggested a few of us get together at the club to work out a solution to “the big problem”. It seems on the third Thursday of each month our wives were involved with their Women’s Club of Pecan for their monthly meeting and luncheon. This meant that we, mere husbands, were left to fix our own lunch—which put a bad taste in our mouths, so to speak.

Holman King, John Campbell, Bob Mosbarger and me grew the organization to 20 or 60 members from time to time.

We only have two elected officials: The Herd Master and the Chief of Worrying. The Herd Master sets up the programs, then herds everyone toward them. Chief of Worrying is to “worry” about things so that no one else has to. At each meeting the Chief of Worrying informs the group as to what he has been worried about on their behalf. As an example, at a recent meeting he reported that he was very worried about the waste of money spent on polishing pickles. It seems “Polish” Pickles cost 87 cents a jar.
We also have a tradition known as the “round of applaud” which we render to individuals for notable accomplishments. Please note that “applaud” is singular. We do have a secret hand-shake but no one will share it. It’s a secret! Besides, we would probably forget it prior to the next meeting anyway.

As to programs, we have enjoyed a Bocci Ball tournament, ping-pong, pool and basketball shoot-outs. (Most are played without leaving our chair.) We have also gone on excursions outside of Pecan—the most meaningful of which was a trip to DFW to greet the troops returning from the Middle East.

The big event each year is the “Tour of Garages.” Actually, it is a tour of selected hangars here in the Air Park area of Pecan and is always a fun, well-attended day as we “oh and ah” over airplanes and other major “boy toys.”

Jim MacLea and our current Herd Master, Ed Key, invite other retired old men in Pecan needing to eat out to drop in.

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