On the morning of January 6, 2016, I made my second visit to the GTE/Verizon Breakfast Group in Grapevine, Texas. No, I did not travel from Long Island, New York or from Easton, Maryland. I moved to Frisco, Texas in 2013. The breakfast group meets almost every Wednesday morning at the Waffle Way, 1206 West Northwest Highway, Grapevine, Texas.
I knew about this group because a member, Roger Gallenstein, a GTE retiree and member of the Association of BellTel Retirees has for many years kept me up-to-date on news about retirees and, specifically, about GTE/Verizon retiree news in Texas.
Roger has been attending the breakfasts at the Waffle Way since 2004. The group’s current leader, John Jensik, has an email list of about 150 potential breakfast attendees from all over the globe who occasionally drop in for breakfast. For instance, for the last three weeks, Duke Tracy has been to the breakfast and he lives in Oregon! Another attendee, Jeff Lapatra, who attended on 12/30, has a farm in Greenville, Texas and lives in Irving, Texas.
The group is eclectic and discusses all sorts of news about the telephone industry, fishing, religion, politics, medical coverage, love, marriage, or whatever comes up. Someday, perhaps one of the members will write a story about what happens in a Texas diner when a bunch of old friends get together for breakfast.
Finally, I want to thank Roger and Ralph Mayfield, Ed Beauvais, Becky Munsell, Claudia Hauft, Dennis (Spike) Murawski, Ken McMillan, John Jensik, Duke Tracy, Bill Manning, John Rollins and Vic Kleiss for their hospitality and hope to visit the GTE/Verizon Breakfast Group again in the near future.
If you are ever in Grapevine, Texas on a Wednesday morning at 9:00, remote as that may be, and feel like breakfast and conversation with retirees mostly from GTE and Verizon, y’all feel free to drop into the Waffle Way.
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