The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Th e group includes two Day- ton city council members and a hospital board member. There's a retired farmer, a retired mail- man and a retired minister. Most of them, I'm afraid to say, are even older than me.

They begin wandering into Skye Book and Brew in Dayton each morning, except Sunday and Monday, at around 9 a.m. A tall carafe with a pump top stands in the middle of the table and dispenses drip coffee. A smaller silver pitcher of decaffe sits next to it.

Some in the group are Dayton natives, while others are newcomers (i.e., they arrived after 1960). Two or three women join in regu- larly, though the group was all male the morning I was there.

There's an unusually high proportion of Democrats in the group, along with a few Republicans. They seem to get along okay though. I asked if they often argue about politics, and they said the discussion was (mostly) polite.

"We do complain about the government though," said Michael Haight, a re- nowned Democrat. Then he added, "Actually, we're bipartisan."

I started to explain that if people from both parties complaining about the gov- ernment was the definition of bipartisanship, then our country would be the most bipartisan it's ever been. However, by then the con- versation had moved on . . . to Jim Kime's tattoo.

It's a fascinating story: Kime, who is way too old to be a hipster, announced that he went to a tattoo parlor in Honolulu recently and had a shark engraved on his calf. The group was highly intrigued until they learned that the shark is now gone, the victim - along with a bit of Kime's macho-ness - of too much soap and water.

Bill Graham (who is the retired minister, one of the city council members and also my father) explained that the group sometimes holds "show and tell". He started to describe the time he brought a couple of things he called finials to show the group, and the spirited discussion they had about them. But I became confused and lost interest.

Other attendees the morning I was there included Dain Nysoe (who's both a native and a relative new- comer, having been away for a few decades), Bill Burke (former intrepid mailman) and Warren Talbott (former farmer).

Talbott serves as chief historian for the group. (At their age, of course, they're all historians.) He described how the group that became the current one began form- ing at Patit Valley Products, a block down Main Street, soon after it opened in 2000. Some members had previ- ously met for coffee at other venues, including Elk Drug, when it was located at Main and Second. When PVP closed a few years later, the group migrated to Skye, bringing along the large round table they use.

Coffee groups like this are a tradition throughout the world, of course, and several meet regularly in the Touchet Valley. But the Skye group deserves our special attention and sympathy right now, because it is losing its home after Friday. Skye Book and Brew is being purchased by new owners, who plan to open later each morning.

So the group, along with its big oak table (donated by Kime), is looking for a new home. Their needs are simple: the venue must open by nine each weekday morning and hopefully also on Saturday; the coffee must be good; and the occasional stale joke or repeated story must be tolerated. They'll even provide their own table.

If you know of a potential refuge for a sad little group like this, give one of them a call. They'd love to hear from you.