Goodrich-It’s about 9 a.m. Monday morning as three local women gather at the M-15 eatery, Cheeky Monkeys Bistro.
The restaurant smells like coffee and freshly baked pastries as the trio sit with their backs to the bistro’s heavily patterned walls. They appear relaxed as they sip coffee from brightly colored mugs, pausing occassionally to warm their hands on the cups.
Their smiles come fast and easy in a way indicative of long established friendship .
The week is beginning as many others have, with Goodrich residents Jackie Hamilton and Evelyn Baker along with Lorraine Morgan of Ortonville chatting. The women have been meeting here most mornings since the bistro, 8217 S.State Road, opened a year or so ago.
Their’s is a tradition of coffee, breakfast and good-hearted gossip; one the women have more time for now that they’ve retired.
The group has been meeting in different locations for about 10 years. It varies in size, ranging from as many as seven women in the spring to as few as three in the cold winter months.
Topics of conversation change with the day, but often focus on current events and grand kids.
‘It just depends on what’s going on,? said Hamilton.
Positioned in the middle of the cafe is a cluster of men, enjoying a similar ritual, though they are perhaps a bit less with the giggles and more with the grunts.
Hamilton, Morgan and Baker gesture to the group with a nod and a chuckle. They explain the men have been meeting in this fashion for quite some time now as well.
‘If you think the women gossip,? laughed Morgan, ‘you oughtta see them.?