It's Tuesday: Time for Root Beer and Checker Club

When Root Beer and Checker Club meets, no one plays checkers and the drink of choice is iced-tea. And as any visitor can tell you, you'd be hard pressed to find a non-grey hair in the room, which is just how the members like it. This club is for people who have been there and done that.

At it's twice weekly meetings, Root Beer and Checker Club is to older men what faternities are to collegietes and playgroups are to young parents - a chance to connect with people who understand the road you are on, 'cause they're walkin' it with you. For executives it might be a golf course or a spa where bonds are formed. But after retirement, when the water cooler has been replaced by a lonely kitchen at home, finding pals of like mind is a little trickier.

"You need to hang out with your gang in each different phase of life," says Marty Torbert of Little Silver. Torbert is a newly retired advertising and public relations executive for chemical companies. He's also a singer and songwriter. He enjoys being home now where he is able to concentrate on his songwriting, but as he says, "When you're retired you gotta get out of the house once in a while."

So if it's Tuesday or Friday, you can find Torbert and up to 50 of his buddies at in for a meeting of Root Beer and Checker Club. Founded in 1945 as an informal businessmen's lunch group, the club has evolved over time. According to club history, members origninally gathered at Hesse’s Luncheonette & Ice Cream Parlor on Front Street, , at the foot of Broad Street. You can read more about the origin of the group in the Root Beer Float.

Over the years it had a few other meeting places including the Olde Union House in Red Bank and in Fair Haven. The club, which now boasts 100 members from the Two River area, finally settled at Navoo Grill in 2009.

So why would a man who's seen it all want to join a group like this?

"I wanted to see what life is like when I get older," joked Bruce Van Vliet, a member for about 3 years. Van Vliet lives in and is a realtor with l. "I was looking for a group of active older people versus older people who are sitting around watching TV, people who are fun to be with and smarter than me." Van Vliet says he found what he was looking for in the members of Root Beer and Checker were he can count on spirited conversations. "They're a great bunch of older guys."

Guys is the key though. On a recent Friday the group had invited Senator Jennifer Beck to address the group on the current state of the legislature. Beck, (who was there for her second time), this reporter and a few wives of members were the only women in the bunch.

Traditionally the club members are men, with wives attending when they are invited to specific speakers, parties, harbor cruises and outings to shows like Legally Blonde at .

Club member Hal Redden, who wrote a history of the club in its most recent newsletter, sheds a little light on how the group has managed to stay men's only for 62 years.

"Over the years there have been some members who have felt that 'fellow men' should have included 'fellow women'.  As a club structured to represent business owners and professionals, networking opportunities that could have been extended to women were being withheld. Now, however, age seems to have taken over and 'retired' pretty much describes the membership.  Women still are not included, but they no longer seem to care!"

Currently the group is run by Rumson resident Charlie Parr, a friendly man with a dead pan sense of humor. The other officers of the group include: Sam Chevalier of Rumson, Richard Huff of Fair Haven and Ray Tierney of Little Silver.

Tuesday lunch meetings, Torbert said, tend to be a smaller crowd. Speakers are generally reserved for Fridays. Sen. Beck told Patch she hopes to be a regular at Root Beer meetings where the dialogue is lively. An upcoming speaker will be Dr. Peter Staats of Premier Pain Management in .

The lunches and speeches are popular for sure, but it seems that what binds this group is more than soup and a half of a tuna on a hard roll.

"The experience of these guys," said Torbert who is one of the younger members. Sitting at his table on Friday was World War II veteran Bob Billings of Red Bank and his wife Betty. Over lunch the couple talked about their trips to Europe to visit World War II sites. About that kind of personal experience, Torbert says, "You can't find it anywhere."

Each year the club gives its 8-Ball Award to an outstanding member. The poem that accompanies it gives a good look at what Root Beer members value in their company, and also what they have learned to value less over all their years.

The spirit of the 8-Ball, is a rare and wonderous thing - it makes you throw out your chest, your spirits soar and sing, for it's not given bcause you're rich, my friend, or for a job well done, your religion or your politics, could never get you one, it matters not your occupation, or that you hold office high, it's a special kind of person, who has the right to qualify, so if you would like an 8-Ball, for your mantle or your wall, go out and earn the deep respect, of friends and members one and all.