Coffee klatsch takes it outside

Look hard enough, below the golden arches off Highway 33 in Cloquet any Monday or Thursday morning when the weather is tolerable, and you'll see them. Guys and gals in lawn chairs and on truck gates enjoying a cup of coffee and maybe a breakfast sandwich, but most of all, conversation with friends.

Pre-pandemic, this coffee klatsch used to meet inside the McDonald's restaurant. In the old-old days, a few of them even met in the first McDonald's building. When Covid-19 precautions forced restaurants to close indoor seating, they found a way to keep meeting. Outside. They sit a few feet apart from each other and don't wear masks, since they're outside. They've even sat in their trucks with the windows down in the rain a couple times, talking.

A lot of good-natured ribbing goes on out here in the lush grass that divides the parking lot from the frontage road. Any topic is fair game, including politics and religion.

"We solve the world's problems. We talk sports when there's sports, politics when there's politics," said Kevin Boedigheimer. "We're the second city council."

McDonald's general manager Noah Kolodge said the restaurant used to have four or five different groups that would meet for coffee in the mornings.

"They're the only ones that rode out the storm," he said of the coffee klatsch, as Boedigheimer calls it.

Kevin Boedigheimer is a founding member of the informal group. It was 1999 when he started taking his lunch hours (at 9 a.m. after working early mornings as a custodian for the school district) at McDonald's. He'd meet up with his dad - it was a way to get him out of the house to start his day - Scotty Patten, Mark Judd and others whenever they could make it, he said.

Last Thursday morning, both Kevin and his brother Craig Boedigheimer, were seated under the tall yellow McDonald's sign, and so was Patten, along with Steven Jarvi, Kevin Toboleski and special guest Karen Springsteele (who went to kindergarten with Jarvi and was visiting from Leech Lake). Kolodge brought the coffee pot out, and both he and supervisor Carol Wemi stayed for jokes and tall tales.

According to his buddies, during the 40th anniversary celebration a few weeks ago when every 40th Cloquet McDonald's car got their order free, Craig was out front with a clicker, counting cars to figure out when to drive through.

"He had his wife go through 19 times," Jarvi cracks with a big laugh.

"Oh he's just mad at me because I ask for Jarvi minnows when I go to Outdoor Advantage," Craig shoots back. "You know, the fatheads."

While the coffee gathering has been going on for more than 20 years - with their own unofficially reserved table inside - its membership ebbs and flows. Kevin figures there have been dozens over the past 20-plus years, including firefighters, millwrights, machinists, cops, nurses, salespeople and "Joe Janitors," Kevin says. They've lost a few folks more recently, he adds, naming Harvey Benko and John Stumpf, who died at 95 years old after working as the head custodian at the high school for years. "It's a hell of a crew," Kevin said.

"We adopt anyone," Kevin said. "I invited Rob Nelson to stop by, but he figured we'd make fun of him." (For the record, they would, he says proudly.)

Jarvi wonders aloud what they will do when the weather turns cold.

People toss out suggestions. Build a bonfire. Move to The Jack (which sometimes happens after a morning at McDonald's anyway). Get a warming torch like they have at some outdoor restaurants. Hope the restaurant lobby will open for indoor seating again.

For now, they will just dress more warmly. They appreciate being able to go inside the restaurant as of last Tuesday to order, or use the restroom. And they like the friendly reception they get from the staff there and the honks they get from people driving by.

Most of all, it is left unsaid, they enjoy each other and their time together.

"This is free," Kevin says, motioning at the group sitting around him. "Come back next week and join us."