2010 Breakfast Club

2010 has finally arrived and with it we begin our 2010 Driver Alumni Breakfast Club Breakfasts. Mother Nature decided to make her wishes known on the Friday (Jan. 29th) before our first Breakfast. Six inches of snow fell Friday evening in Nashville with 2 more inches of ice falling Friday night and into Saturday morning before tapering off and going into a hard deep-freeze. Temperatures for Saturday night, Jan. 30th, dipped to 9 degrees.

Photo shown at left: Interstate 24-40 westbound coming from downtown Nashville... Friday, January 29, 2010.

	It sho' nuff snowed for this Driver Alumni Breakfast and as cold as it was, we still had some die-hard Breakfast Club folks show up. Because there weren't that many photos taken at our first 2010 Breakfast, I am including some of the photos taken around Murfreesboro and Nashville showing the ice and snow conditions with a few "action" photos thrown in for good measure. Please remember that NONE of our Breakfast Club Alumni were involved in or participated in any of the wrecks and crashes shown here.





	No--- that is NOT Snake Doctor on the snow board!


	Photo shown at left---- Downtown Nashville Friday Night, January 29, 2010 around the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and other Country Music Nightclubs. Photo was taken in Black and White. Our NEXT Driver Alumni Breakfast has now been scheduled for Saturday, April 3rd. Post cards will be mailed out in March. Thanks to everyone who braved the cold and bad weather to come out for this Breakfast.

	Our Spring Driver Alumni Breakfast was held Saturday April 3rd at our usual Shoney's on Broad Street in downtown Murfreesboro, TN. While we missed a few of our regulars, it was great to see a couple of new faces who have not been before or have not been in quite a while.

















	In case there is anyone from the Better-Bilt days who doesn't recognize the shiny-haired fellow shown at left, he had much more hair on the top of his head back in the golden days of Better-Bilt....this is none other that the great Mark Fluty, aka "Jammer"!

Our regular waitress, Miss Kimberly was out of town for this breakfast but her Mom, Miss Ruth, shown in photo below left, filled in for her and did a wonderful job of keeping those coffee mugs filled. Our Summer Driver Alumni Breakfast will held on July 31st at the Downtown Shoney's in Murfreesboro. Breakfast Notice cards will go out around the first of July. Hope to see everyone there!

	The Better-Bilt-Cumberland-Swan Alumni Driver breakfast was held at our favorite Shoney's in downtown Murfreesboro, TN on Saturday July 31, 2010. We had 35 Alumni attend this breakfast. We nearly had the room full! While me missed a lot of our Cumberland-Swan friends, and several of our Better-Bilt drivers were absent, we were grateful to see some new faces who have not attended one of our Alumni Breakfast. Shown at left is our Breakfast Planner Ken Young with our wonderful waitress for this breakfast...Miss Cheri!

	A first-timer was Cumberland-Swan driver J.D. Hoyt, shown at left, and his lovely wife Joyce.


Shown at right is former Cumberland-Swan driver Wayne Shockey and his lovely wife Thelma, a first timer. Please bring her back, Wayne! The wives are welcome!

	TWO first-timers to our Alumni Breakfast, shown at left: Gale Swett on the left, who began his career at Better-Bilt in Smyrna and then transferred Arizona to take over the new Better-Bilt facility in Prescott Valley, AZ around 1981. Dennis Swindle, on the right, worked at the Smyrna plant from 1975 to 2000




Former Cumberland-Swan driver Raymond Oakley, shown at right with his wife, a first-timer as well. LOTS of wives this time! Bring them on!




	Another first-timer to our Alumni Breakfasts -- Lana Ferrell, former Customer Service Rep for Better-Bilt. Shown at left with former Better-Bilt driver Joe McDaniel.


Shown at right -- yep --- another first-timer to our Alumni Breakfast -- Joyce Swindle, wife of Dennis Swindle whose is shown elsewhere on this page. The photographer is not sure how come he didn't catch these two people TOGETHER for a photo. He will try harder next time. Joyce worked at Better-Bilt in the plant for about 19 years. And she brought that camera? Like the camera guy needs competition at these breakfasts?

Shown at right are Kathi Payne and hubby Mike. Kathi was the wonderful lady in the Better-Bilt HR office who helped all the drivers with their medical insurance problems....way back when. This was their first time to attend an Alumni Breakfast. I hope we didn't scare them off?











We had 35 to show up for this Alumni Breakfast. I believe a great time was had by all who attended. I hope we have more at our next breakfast. Ken has our next Alumni Breakfast planned for Saturday, October30, 2010 at our favorite Shoney's in downtown Murfreesboro, TN. Breakfast Notice Cards will go out about 4 weeks prior to the Breakfast. Thanks to everyone who showed up for this breakfast! Hope to see everyone and more at the October Breakfast!

Our Fall Better-Bilt Cumberland/Swan Driver Alumni Breakfast was held at our usual Shoney's in Murfreesboro, TN on Saturday October 30th. While pretty chilly that morning, the day was beautiful. We missed many of our regulars at this breakfast and hopefully they are all well and safe. We had some "newbies" at this breakfast. I hope they will come back in 2011!

	It was good to see Gary Johnson, shown in the photo at left, on the left, after being absent for many breakfasts this year. One of our Newbies is shown lifting the coffee mug next to Gary is Danny Tatrow, former Warnaco driver.



	Another Newbie for this breakfast is Richard England, shown at left with Ken and Linda Young. Richard is a former driver for Warnaco and Hill's Department Stores.


	Maribeth Sauls, shown at left with Helen Voss, is former Director of HR for Better-Bilt. She retired from Better-Bilt and loves being a GRANDMA!





And finally---- Shown at right in his famous green Bass Fishing Ball Cap is former Cumberland-Swan Driver Bob Graham. Bob has been missing from many of our breakfasts this year due to health issues. He's lost some weight but appears to be headed back to full recovery and back to attending our Breakfasts! Welcome Back, Bob!







	Our lovely hostess for this breakfast is Heather, shown at left with Joe McDaniel, Bobby Stevens and Harold Gary. She did an excellent job for us. We hope she will be back with us in January 2011! Thanks to everyone who came out. Our next Driver Alumni Breakfast is set for January 7th, 2011! Until then -- Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!