Who are "The Muggers"?

What would your first impression be if you learned that Kendal at Granville had a residents' group called - of all things! - "the Muggers"? Maybe you'd worry that we harbored a gang of street bandits? Or perhaps you'd surmise that we'd created an organization for people who liked to hog the camera's attention? I've heard both suggestions - and others as well.

Actually, the group is simply the men's breakfast club at Kendal. We meet in the dining room on the last Friday of each month to eat a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes; to share good conversation with each other; and to enjoy a presentation from an outside guest. And our name? Where does it come from? Well, it simply derives from the signature coffee mugs that each of us has left in the care of the dining service to certify our membership in good standing in the group when we appear each month. That's it: we have our mugs and so we're the Muggers!

Over the past three years the leadership of the group has brought in a variety of speakers and groups to get our days off to a rousing start. Nearby Denison University, for example, has provided us with musical entertainment and a small improv theater group. The local chapter of SPEBSQSA has entertained with a barber shop quartet. We've had light-hearted talks about the memorable film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, the National Road (US 40 to the uninitiated), and the contrast between gender relations then and now. A comedic ensemble from the Licking Players, our local theatrical group, has lightened our morning. We even turn serious at times, to learn for example about the global economy. One of the joys of the Muggers is that we don't know ahead of time what's on tap for each meeting: each breakfast brings its surprise.

An organization like the Muggers is valuable at Kendal, for, like most retirement communities, our demographics show a preponderance of females. That circumstance makes it useful for the men to get together occasionally - not to fall back into locker room banter, but to recover the tones and contours of male conversation and friendship. I can speak only for myself in advancing this observation - which is to say that neither Kendal nor my wife might agree! - but it seems to me that, whether from nature or nurture, certain gender differences are inexpungible. The monthly meeting of the Muggers affords Kendal's men an hour or so of male-bonding time, and the group thus becomes another of Kendal's many and various resident organizations.