GILLETTE — The men around the table spend a lot of time discussing the nuts-and-bolts of their replacement hips and knees and who might be using a cane that day.
They also talk politics, which in light of the impending election has left Chuck Butler and George Dunlap with plenty to say.
These guys are part of the Old Farts Society (OFS) that has been meeting at The Local coffee shop in downtown Gillette since the late 1980s.
Its members, including “Doc” Garry Becker and former Gillette Mayor Ed Collins among others, are legacy families with deep roots and ties to a community they’re deeply invested in.
Even though many of the original members have died, Dunlap said the remaining Old Farts still gather at 8 a.m. weekdays, making it one of the longest-standing coffee gatherings in the area.
The group has even donated “OFS” coffee mugs, hats and other memorabilia to the Campbell County Rockpile Museum.
On Friday, it was just Dunlap and Butler at the table, though Bill Todd, the oldest member at age 90, arrived fashionably late about an hour later.
Butler is a retired coal miner of 40 years and sits on the Campbell County Public Library Board. Dunlap, meanwhile, owned a photography studio downtown for decades and recently lost the primary race for House District 32 to incumbent Ken Clouston.
Both are deeply invested in state and local politics as well as the presidential election, in which they both will vote for Donald J. Trump.
OId Farts And Energy
Neither are shy about their right-leaning politics, which Butler said are shared by all the group’s members — except “Doc” who got a little “left” the other day.
In terms of national issues, they list energy as their biggest concern, particularly in light of “the green agenda” supported by Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.
Gillette is ground zero for thermal coal, in the middle of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin that produces 40% of the coal burned to make electricity in the U.S.
Energy is paramount to a thriving civilization, Dunlap noted, saying that it makes no sense financially or environmentally to shutter reliable American coal-fired power plants when China continues to build at escalating rates.
“The quality of life for everybody goes way up because of energy,” Dunlap said.
Both he and Butler think the state should invest in more clean-coal plants such as the Dry Fork Station in Campbell County, which has been lauded as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the nation.
The men further believe this is a much better investment than supporting renewable sources like wind that Dunlap said has roughly a seven-year lifespan requiring 11,000 gallons of oil each per average wind farm per year to operate.
Media Favors Kamala
Apart from energy, Butler also expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the media and its impact on political perceptions.
He cites recent trips to both Idaho and Nebraska where he saw yards flooded with Trump signs and only a handful for Harris.
Both he and Dunlap have attended Trump rallies and do not feel the media is being honest about the number of Trump supporters who are turning out in droves to support him at various events.
“I think it’s because the media really is in charge of everything,” Butler said, from the national narrative to the definition of certain words.
‘That Tax Is Ridiculous’
In terms of pressing state issues, both cite skyrocketing property taxes as a major concern, and Dunlap is against Amendment A that would place residential real property into its own class for property tax assessments.
He feels that separating residential from commercial properties will make it easier for the state to raise taxes on both over time.
“It’s just what happens, it creeps up right now,” he said. “I probably pay 40 to 50% of every dollar I make on taxes, between sales tax, license plates, property tax. I mean, we spend so much money that tax is ridiculous.”
They also think that city should stick to providing essential services and build what they can afford to maintain instead of relying on taxes from coal mines.
Dunlap also said he would like to see the county implement policies like in other states where there are caps on sales taxes that would make it cheaper for coal mines to invest in upkeep and equipment.
In general, they both feel Wyomingites should be able to keep more money in their pockets.
“We're all a bunch of rednecks, and we think you should get to keep what you earn,” Dunlap said. “So, if you work your butt off and earn money, you should get to keep it.”
More Left-Leaning Counterparts
To their right is the all-female table where four white-haired women sit huddled over cups of coffee.
They, too, meet at 8 a.m., though that’s the only thing they have in common with their male coffee counterparts.
In fact, they suggest wearing an invisible forcefield to protect from the men’s “far-right” political conversations.
None of the women agree to provide their names on record, though. Like the men, they also have deep roots in the community and all are retired professionals or business owners.
Despite the good-natured jabs at the men, they for the most part will not be voting for former President Trump for a variety of reasons.
One woman, a retired nurse, even said that if he wins, she’ll consider moving to Norway.
“Are you really considering voting for Kamala?” one of the women asked the former nurse.
She shrugged, admitting she’s not sure, though acknowledges that Trump will certainly win Wyoming regardless of how she votes.
All agree with that assessment as they poke fun at the one more conservative female at the table who identifies as a “moderate.”
Friends First
At this table, political leanings — whether left or right — take a back seat to the long-term friendships of the women who interrupt each other to extol the virtues of each other in this rare corner of the world unscathed by divineness where disagreements in political views are welcomed with good-natured jibes and humor.
Even more so than the national election, these women with deep roots in Gillette are most upset about local issues plaguing the city and Wyoming.
In particular, they’re angry about state Sen. Troy McKeown’s, R-Gillette, recent no vote to change the state’s formula to increase funding for school facility projects during the Legislature’s Select Committee on School facilities meeting in Cheyenne last week.
The women would like to see money go to Campbell County High School for much-needed infrastructure improvements, they say, for the sake of the students.
Faith In The World
Across town at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery off South Highway 59, Tim Schofield sat in a booth with his pastor from the Redemption Church, Josh Yelton, for their Friday morning Bible study.
They were operating at half capacity that morning, Yelton said, with two of their regular members missing.
Though politics is typically not on the agenda, they broke from their regular studies to discuss their biggest fears plaguing the country in light of the upcoming election.
Schofield’s biggest concern is the hostility and polarization of both parties and the propensity to “want to lock up candidates on both sides of the aisle” as well as the assassination attempts on Trump’s life.
“I don’t know where that’s coming from except the media seems to promote it,” he said.
Yelton agreed that polarization is an issue, which is perpetuated by the nature of the political system in general.
“I think we’ve kind of trapped ourselves a little bit in partisan politics, but I don’t think anybody perfectly fits one party or one candidate over the other,” he said. “And there’s a lot of good to it, obviously, but I think there’s some major flaws to it as well.”
For Yelton, the biggest issue is sanctity of life and that he’ll ultimately vote for the candidate who he thinks is most aligned with keeping abortion illegal.
Inflation
A second concern is the skyrocketing inflation, which is making feeding his wife and two sons increasingly harder, especially in light of some of their expensive dietary restrictions.
If it continues to get worse, he’ll need to get a second job to support his family, he said
More pressing for Schofield, perhaps, is the looming possibility of a third world war considering tensions in the Middle East as well as China’s aggression toward Taiwan.
In this particular arena, Schofield views Trump as the stronger candidate given what he sees as President Joe Biden’s “cowardly” retreat from Afghanistan and the number of citizens left behind.
The nation’s rising debt, likewise, is a huge issue for them.
More so, they feel that the nation needs to embrace faith in the face, which Yelton said he’s beginning to see emerge in small pockets of the population. This “roller coaster of faithfulness” is inherent in human history, he said.
“You'll see these just mass revivals, and then you'll also see kind of the depths of what I call depravity, the depths of just sinfulness in humanity. And in that dark place, it might seem like there's no light, there's no hope, there's no way out, there's no direction,” he said. “And yet, at some point, somehow, light reemerges.”
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
