“Do you know why schools are so expensive?”

I was all ears, waiting for Joe Crowley to give me the answer.

I should have expected such a question following Saturday morning tennis as we sat at the “usual” spot at Panera in East Greenwich, even if it’s more than a year since I joined the gang for breakfast.  It’s been that long after three back operations restricted from me driving. I suppose I could have asked for a ride, however, it only seemed fair not to subject Carol to more than an hour of trading stories about local events and commentary on national affairs.

 For a first time I got behind the wheel last weekend to drive to the Beacon office, and on Saturday I vowed to stretch things and make it to Panera.

I warned Joe on Friday that I might show up for coffee, and he opened the door to Panera as soon as he spotted me roll up with my walker.

Joe, retired director of the Warwick Area Career & Technical Center, is currently the acting interim director of Warwick school finances.

If anyone, he would know why schools are so expensive.

“So, why are they so expensive?” I asked.

“I’m working on that,” he replied.

Seated and cradling a mug of coffee and not looking his age was Bob Coker. His son Dave was at the counter picking up their breakfast order.  Bob, a retired Toll Gate physics teacher and tennis coach, started the tennis league soon after the high school opened more than 50 years ago.  He stopped playing several years ago after turning 90 but can’t miss Saturday morning coffee. Eddie Blamires, a longtime league player, would join us.

That’s not to imply we’re an exclusive group. Hardly.

State Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis (Coventry, West Warwick) entered, scanning the restaurant. He was planning to meet someone and joined us to chat while waiting. We traded small talk, although I’m sure the senator would have loved to hear why schools are so expensive. He didn’t get the scoop from Joe. His friend showed up and they went off to meet.

I got a quick rundown of who scored points and who came up empty-handed in Saturday’s play. Joe was smiling. Eddie complained he had stayed up too late watching the UConn game Friday and fell asleep during the final quarter. Bob was up to speed on national events, scoring the president for failing to be at Dover Air Force base for the return of the bodies of four U.S. soldiers who lost their lives when their military vehicle sank in a swap while training in Lithuania. Trump was attending a LIV golf tournament  at his Trump National Doral Golf Club and spent the night at Mar-a-Lago for a candlelight MAGA million-dollar-a-ticket dinner, according to media reports.

That’s the way the group is; you say your piece. No one argued with Bob. He would have heard otherwise had there been a bone of contention.

The story of the elderly Warwick homeowner who was scammed out of $9,500 by an Irishman generated lots of stories. The Irishman said he and his crew were doing home repairs in the Gaspee neighborhood and could fix the resident’s cracked foundation only to demand $95,000 once work was started because, he claimed, conditions were worse and the situation was dire. The homeowner alerted Warwick police, who contacted federal authorities. Working together, they arrested the man, whom the Department of Justice estimated had made off with a million dollars in similar scams across the country.

Eddie reported he recognizes the numbers of incoming calls from Block Island and other locales such as Pawtucket – and the voice of a scammer who always uses a different name. He no longer bothers picking up those calls. Bob told of the online scams claiming unpaid highway tolls and urging him to go online to make a payment. He doesn’t follow the instructions.

On the other hand, Joe spelled out the reason schools are so costly. No one argued with him. As we finished our coffee he said he was going home to write it up, adding he would send it along to the Beacon. You’ll find the answers on this page.