Weekly breakfast group called the "Reagan Bunch" keeps former high school classmates together

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- In a city that prides itself on being modern, it's sometimes hard to find the past. That's why a weekly breakfast group that meets in The Heights is a pleasant counterpoint.

For a dozen years, the group that calls itself the "Reagan Bunch" has been meeting over coffee. Their chosen spot is the Yale Drugstore, where they fill a large center table next to the counter.

"We do it to get away from the wives," joked one member. They're all men in their 80s, and they all graduated from Reagan High School, which was renamed Heights High School.

"It got to the point where we weren't planning for 10-year high school reunions," said John Wener, who graduated in the early 1950s and went on to become a civil attorney. "I guess we look at each other like they people we've become. We don't think about just those days."

Howard Moon is a member of the class of 1951. He was a tight end for the Reagan Bulldogs football team, the year the team won the city championship, he said.

When asked what he enjoys about meeting with his former classmates each week, he facetiously replied, "for the inspiration, and invigoration that makes me go to work.

At 85, Moon is retired from the insurance business. He also played football at UT.

It's the way friendships used to be before social media transformed them from personal contact into digital.

They celebrate birthdays at the table, remember classmates who've passed on, and recall their childhood memories formed in the Houston Heights.

"Things change over time," said Don Harvey, 84, who's part of the bunch, and still lives in the Heights. "When you look back, and you thought you had it bad, that was our best days."

They are octogenarians, but they're full of life, conversation, and energy. You can see for yourself if you stop by the Yale Drugstore lunch counter on Wednesday morning.

"If you don't have a sense of humor, don't come," said Harvey, with a smile. "We're always saying something about somebody and we laugh it off."