©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc.

We hope y’all had a beautiful Sunday.

I don’t think I’d mentioned it earlier
but those nice red, white, and blue
decorations were courtesy of the folks at
Our Village, who share the
building with us.

Ella and Tom stopped by our building Sunday to double check our clean up after the FIRST FRIDAY POTLUCK AND GAME NIGHT. We got the trash out that we didn’t take out Friday. It was darker than the inside of a well by the time we were done playing games and this old man doesn’t much care for stumbling around in the dark to take out the trash.

Stay safe with the fireworks. I’ll be counting fingers on Thursday

©2022 Over The Hill Gang

Fried chicken, potatoes & gravy, coleslaw, fruit, and beans     

Lunch served at 11:30 but arrive early to socialize and stay afterward for games and fellowship.

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc.

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc.

July 01, 2022 the very first FIRST FRIDAY POTLUCK AND GAME NIGHT 7 to 9 pm. Every First Friday of every month.

We were a mighty 10 for our very first FIRST FRIDAY POTLUCK AND GAME NIGHT. Much merriment was had by all. We are sorry y’all missed it. There was plenty of food left over and carried home for quick lunches later. Set your calendar for August 5th, the next FIRST FRIDAY POTLUCK AND GAME NIGHT. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it again!

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc.

We’re a couple days early but if we waited until next Thursday, we’d be a couple days late. Besides it’s never too early for a picnic lunch. Right Yogi?

Hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, chips and dips, Jell-O. Everything but the ants … and possibly pic-i-nic basket stealing bears.

Good Food … Great Fellowship

…

…

I didn’t have to blur any faces. Nobody has an outstanding warrants. Yes I’m kidding 😀

This is your board left to right back row: Tom Williams, Janet Ross, Jannett Thornburg, Monica Moser. Front row: Ella Williams Merle Rouillard.

Card Games: 5 Crowns and Canasta

Today’s announcements
OTHG 06/30/2022
Happy Independence Day, y’all.
Happy summer too.
Please wear a name tag. Some are like me who recognize the face but can’t remember the name. And after awhile it too embarrassing to ask.
Last week it was suggested that we get reusable name tags. It’s a great idea that we will begin soon.

Also, a reminder, please add your email address to the sign-in sheet. We won’t publicize them. They will be used for important or urgent messages.

Remember: Tomorrow is the first Friday of July. 
It is the very first of the FIRST FRIDAY POTLUCK AND GAME NIGHTs
7- 9. Bring games and food for a good time. 
Get the word out to people you know who can’t come on Thursdays during the day.
Anybody who is at least 50 and live in the greater Liberty Hill area … basically, if they live in Williamson county … we will consider them in our charter to provide opportunities for social, recreational, and educational for the area seniors.

Joke: An elderly man was having hearing problems and went to see a specialist. The doctor fitted him with some hearing aids that brought his hearing back to full strength.
After a few weeks the man came back to make sure the new equipment was working properly, which it was.
The hearing specialist said, “It all seems perfect. Your family should be delighted you can hear everything now.”
“Oh no,” the man responded. “I haven’t told any of them. I just sit quietly, listening carefully. 
I’ve changed my will four times.”

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc

July menu for Thursday lunch at 11:30
• 07 Fried chicken, potatoes & gravy, coleslaw, fruit, and beans     
• 14 Beef stew, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, biscuits, fruit.    
• 21 Baked Potato with fixin’s, lettuce salad, fruit.      
• 28 Meatloaf, mashed potato, gravy, beets, salad, fruit.

Remember:

First Friday Potluck and Game Night 7 to 9

The first Friday of every month

We had leftovers on Thursday July 7th … all because YOU weren’t here. We’ll see you next week at 11:30 for beef stew and sides.

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc

Lunch was lasagna, lettuce salad, garlic bread, and pinto beans. Desserts provided were cookies, watermelon, and cheesecake.

Tom’s Message Before Lunch

I’m so glad to see y’all. Last Thursday kinda became the perfect storm as all the dark clouds lined up. Tuesday, we shopped for the groceries and brought them to the OTHG building. 
That’s when we discovered the lack of air conditioning. 
Then I got sick
Then Ella got sick. 
I asked Merel to cover for me and found out she was also sick. 
So we had to suspend for last week. I posted messages on all of the Liberty Hill Facebook pages and Merel posted signs on the doors. I sent email messages to those few who had previously shared their email addresses with us.

• And that brings me to the next topic. If we had everyone’s email address, we could have quickly sent a message and avoided people arriving to find we were closed. Please. Please. Add your email behind your name on the sign in sheet. Please print both your name and email

• On a brighter note: Have you noticed the newly cleaned carpet and freshly washed windows courtesy of the city?
The city was also notified about the air conditioner last Tuesday and have it running for us today.

•Speaking of the city … I received this text from Mayor Liz Brannigin:. The county is asking to use the building for the November election.  I will try to find an alternate.  Thanks, Liz
If it comes to this we may check with some of the local churches. Perhaps they could host us for however many Thursdays in November.

• 2 weeks ago I asked if y’all would be interested in Friday Night Potluck and Game Night. There was positive feedback so we’re going to go ahead with it. It will be the FIRST Friday of every month from seven to nine. This begins in July on the first. Bring an entree to share and a salad or dessert. This was also posted on social media. And if you would let people know on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, telephone, telegraph, telegram, tell a woman, tell a man, or whatever system you use to get the message out that we not only meet every Thursday for food, fellowship, and fun starting at 10:30 A.M. with lunch at 11:30. We now have fun and games on First Fridays Potluck and Games Night from 7 to 9.

Joke: A blind man walks into a bar. And a chair. And a table. And a desk. Okay the punchlines not that great … but I’ll bet you, like the blind man, didn’t see it coming..

GAMES WERE PLAYED

OTHG General Meeting June 23, 2022
President Tom Williams called the meeting to order.  There were 13 members present and one new member.  Elections were held.  There was only one member on ballot per office, there were no further nominations. They were voted in unanimously. The new officers are as follows:  Tom Williams president; Jannett Thornburg vice president; Merle Rouillard secretary; Janet Ross treasurer; directors Ella Williams and Monica Moser.

Last week the OTHG was closed due to AC malfunction and illnesses of members.

The president announced that OTHG will begin to have a pot luck dinner from 7:00 to 9:00 pm on the first Friday of each month and each member participating to please bring a dish to share.  The first potluck will be July 1st, 2022.

The City will be using the OTHG building again (it belongs to the City) from October 24 through November 9 for elections so we would miss Oct. 27 and Nov. 3.

UPDATE: THE ELECTIONS WERE MOVED TO ROCK POINT CHURCH AND OTHG STARTED OPEN

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc. all rights reserved.

Recent History

By Tom Williams After the crazy spike in new Covid cases in January 2022 my heart sank. I had been truly hoping that OTHG could begin gathering again in the new year. January became February which became March. In March we returned to OTHG but without serving a meal, because there were still concerns about Covid and food safety.
Attendance varied week to week between 5 and 12. We brought our own lunches and played games.
We were making plans to start serving lunch again in May. However, the city of Liberty Hill, which owns the building, suspended us once again. They used the building for an early voting site from mid April through the end of May.
June 2nd we came back with our first meal together in all too many months. We had a pizza party. The following week we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, jello fruit salad. And, of course, a pot of beans. Meals have officially started.
Through all the ups and downs of the past couple of years some of our former regular-attenders have passed away. Some regulars haven’t returned as quickly as is hoped. But the bright spot is we are attracting new members.
We’ve also expanded to a once a month First Friday Potluck and Game Night.

©2022 Over The Hill Gang, Inc.

There is a new news article about us at the bottom of post 2022 July 14

The following is from “The Independent” August 27, 2021

Over the Hill Gang stops meetings, again
Aug 27, 2021.  By Rachel Madison

When the Over the Hill Gang restarted their weekly Thursday luncheons in April after a 14-month hiatus due to COVID, they had high hopes they were back for good.
Unfortunately, due to the most recent surge in COVID cases because of the Delta variant, the gang made the decision Aug. 19 to suspend all meetings until further notice.

“The board came to an agreement that due to the increased threat of COVID, this will be the last Over the Hill Gang meeting until there is clear evidence that it is once again safe,” said Tom Williams, president of the organization, during his weekly announcements. “There’s no way we can social distance in here, and I personally would feel somewhat responsible if any of you got sick because of being here and even worse if you died from it, so we are going to try to avoid that.”. 
Williams said before the pandemic, around 70 people would attend the weekly Over the Hill meetings for food and fellowship. Since the group started meeting again a few months ago, there have been dwindling numbers, with the last few weeks only bringing in around 25 people.  
“Our group is just continuing to get smaller,” he said. “There are a lot of people already not coming. With the COVID cases on the rise and the new variant, plus the age of our group and the assorted ailments that go along with that age, I don’t feel comfortable with us gathering.”
Area seniors ages 50 years and older are eligible to join the gang.
During the group’s hiatus, Williams said he didn’t hear of anyone in the group contracting COVID, but he believes that was because everyone took isolating very seriously. And even when the gang started meeting again, many still weren’t ready to socialize and didn’t attend the weekly luncheon.
Although he is glad his group members are staying safe, Williams also worries about those who live alone and don’t get the chance to socialize much outside of Over the Hill Gang events.
“My wife and I were together isolating, and I mentioned to her how terrible this would be to go through alone,” Williams said. “It’s hard even for us not having people to talk to all the time.”
Because of the age of the group, Williams said they didn’t try any virtual meetings.
“While we were apart, we were apart,” he said. “I know there were a lot of friends here who tried to stay in contact, but it’s hard to play Canasta or Dominos over a virtual meeting.”
During the Over the Hill Gang’s absence from their meeting space in the County Annex building behind Parker’s Market, former Mayor Rick Hall rented out half of the building to The Village, a daycare for adults with disabilities.  “We wanted to come back bigger and better, but it’s hard to come back bigger and better when you don’t have the space to meet,” said Ella Williams, one of the directors for the Over the Hill Gang’s board. “There’s no way we can social distance in just half our building. We love The Village—they are a wonderful bunch of people—and I’m all for finding a good place for them to be, which this was while we were gone, but I hope when we come back, we have more space.”
Tom Williams said Hall didn’t know how much the Over the Hill Gang group used the building, and while the gang doesn’t own the building, the group does own everything inside the building.
“We were promised a new building under the previous mayor,” he added. “They were going to move us across the street and build a new community center, but as you see, we are still here and there is still [city-owned] machinery over there [across the street]. I guess that was impacted by COVID also. However, if you ran a survey amongst our members, you wouldn’t find too many in favor of giving up this building. Instead, they just want to have our room back.”.
Current Mayor Liz Branigan said she has big plans for the Over the Hill Gang’s future and is currently looking into grant options to fund the building of a senior community center where the group can meet when they start their meetings once again.