By Abe Villarreal

A local organization that supports disabled people in my town announced this week that they are hosting a new Senior Café event on most mornings of the week. The flyer said there would be free coffee and even continental breakfast for sale beginning at 7:30 a.m. each day.

Under a picture of a big cup of coffee and pastries, the announcement asked if readers needed a place to gather to solve the world's problems. It made me happy just to read it.

I don't yet fall into the "senior" category, so I don't think I'll be crashing their new social group, but I would like to attend. The world has many problems needing solving, and who knows, maybe there will be answers to some of them.

Not too long ago, the regular meeting of people, neighbors and those who barely know each other, took place all around communities. In diners and cafes, donut shops and plazas, people met simply to meet. Not formally meet, but the kind of meetings that take place with no agendas or minute taking.

I like those kinds of meetings. You know who is going to be there most of the time. You know what might be brought up in terms of small talk. The rest is left to the wind. Everyone has their favorite side of the table, and the coffee pot somehow never reaches its bottom.

For the last 20 years, the gathering of neighbors has been on the decline. You can text people by reading your thoughts into your phone. Why the need to meet in person? There's other business to attend to first thing in the morning. You tell yourself that you'll make it to the next one, and then you don't make it. Soon enough, the old group is broken up. You ask yourself, "I wonder why we stopped meeting?"

Things to do as community members, informal things like meeting up at the bakery or barbership feel like things of yesteryear.

I hope the Senior Café is a big event. I hope there are more people than the organizers expected. I hope there are senior citizens who meet for the first time. And I hope there are those who haven't seen each other since before they were seniors.

On mornings when I don't have to rush to the first meeting of the day, I go to the historic hotel on the old main street and sit on the first stool next to the register. There's a row of about five stools, and they are always empty.

Behind me are families and hotel guests enjoying eggs and French toast. The stools, empty. Maybe we are afraid as a society to do what our parents and grandparents did without hesitation. They met up with people they didn't know. They said hello to strangers that would later become friends.

They gathered in gathering places, when gathering created discussion, and discussion created relationships. It still does, and when it happens, sometimes world problems actually get solved.

That's what I'm hoping the new Senior Café does. If it doesn't, at least there will be a place for gathering, discussion, and relationships. When I get to being a senior, I'll start my mornings there.

Abe Villarreal writes about life and culture in America. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com.