After a late night of studying, senior Lucas Horn strolled in to Maddie’s Cafe in downtown Searcy looking for a much-needed study break and some good-old fashioned breakfast food. What he found was a set of unexpected new friends.
One might assume a restaurant to be pretty vacant at 5 a.m. on a Friday, but Maddie’s is a hub for many of Searcy’s early-risers to meet before they head off to work. As Horn slid into a booth, he said he could not help but notice the restaurant was buzzing with commotion. Within a few minutes, a group of elderly gentlemen invited him to join them.
“I met all the guys, and then I sat down drinking coffee and talking for an hour and a half,” Horn said.
Horn said he enjoyed their company so much that he decided to go back, and he has not stopped going since.
“I figured I would come here rather than sleeping in every morning,” Horn said.
The group Horn eats breakfast with every week has met together at Maddie’s to catch up and tell stories for approximately 25 years. Each of them comes from a very different role within the Searcy community.
Allen King, a construction worker for Harding University, said he has known Deputy Sheriff Jeff Langley and Razorback Auto salesman Don Evans along with several of the other gentlemen since high school. Their friendship has stood the test of time, lasting for around 50 years. Michelle Blanchett, who has worked at Maddie’s since 1990, has also known the group since they first started eating breakfast at the cafe early each morning.
King said he goes to Maddie’s for the company.
“I come here to visit,” King said. “The food here is good and Michelle is good to us. You can have a lot of fun in here before you go to work.”
Horn said the atmosphere was plenty of fun, and the wisdom and experience his new friends have to offer surpasses anything that can be taught in a traditional classroom setting.
“It’s fun just getting to hear these guys tell stories,” Horn said. “I figure listening to them, I will learn more than I ever will going to class.”
Horn said he plans to continue to eat breakfast with the group every Friday for the rest of his time at Harding, because his new friends “have learned a lot in their 50 plus years of living and their wisdom will be helpful to living life.”
