Last Meal for the Breakfast Club?

OXNARD —  If the walls at BG’s Coffee Shop could talk, oh the stories they could tell.

For 25 years, generations of Oxnard residents have gathered there for homemade breakfasts, soups and pies with juicy gossip and spicy conversations on the side.

Members of several of Ventura County’s pioneering families--the McGraths, Reardons, Laubachers, Gonzalezes and Covarrubias--regularly visit BG’s to discuss business, politics, sports, friendships and life.

Every weekday, by about 8:15 a.m., the regulars are seated on the red vinyl seats at their reserved tables, drinking hot coffee with the same group of friends.

The only thing that changes is the conversation.

“You can’t afford to miss a day because then they talk about you,” said George Rees, 84, referring to his longtime friends sitting around the table.

At the helm of this venerable coffee shop is 55-year-old Gloria Stuart--co-owner, hostess, everybody’s friend--Mom to some, Grandma to others.

Gloria and her husband of 39 years, Bill--the co-owner and cook--open their doors to these Oxnard locals 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, year in and year out.

But soon the tradition--as it is now known--may end.

Gloria and Bill have placed BG’s up for sale.

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Now ready to retire, they find operating the coffee shop too demanding, especially on Bill, 61, whose weary legs grow tired standing in the kitchen as he cooks nine hours a day.

Although it makes her sad to think of selling the shop, Gloria said she hopes that the right buyer will come along to keep the BG’s legacy alive.

“That’s why it’s going to be hard to sell,” said Gloria as she munched on French toast during her 11 a.m. lunch break. “That’s why we feel we need to have locals [buy it]. Everybody feels comfortable here, even when they are by themselves.”

But when the Stuarts leave, patrons fear it will no longer be the same.

Who could ever replace Gloria Stuart’s “Hi sugar, come on in!” when she greets people at the door? Who could match the freshly baked cinnamon rolls that Bill whips up?

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“I don’t know what we are going to do,” said 90-year-old John Dullams. “We’ll start up a restaurant of our own!”

“There is no one like Gloria,” said Rees, former president of Oxnard Frozen Foods.

In 1971, Gloria and Bill Stuart, a former Army cook, bought the coffee shop, which is located in the heart of downtown Oxnard on A Street.

Gloria, who had previously worked as a waitress, was determined to make her eatery warm and inviting to anyone who walked in the doors. With a husky, friendly voice and a ready smile, she finds it easy to make people feel at home.

“Years ago, [restaurants had] . . . such a cold atmosphere,” said the grandmother of eight. “If I went alone, nobody would talk to me. ‘I’m a person, why don’t they talk to me?’ ” Gloria said she would ask herself.

At BG’s, no customer is a stranger and coldness is not on the menu.

Gloria has charge accounts for those regulars who sometimes cannot afford to pay. She telephones customers who she has not seen for weeks to make sure they are OK. And she is a confidant.

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“People come in here and they know they can come and talk and nobody is going to repeat it,” said Gloria.

She has been privy to some pretty good Oxnard secrets, she says. But those are the “deep stories.” Those are “the stories you can’t tell,” she said with a sly laugh.

Yet some of those notorious tales do get out.

Like the one about Lucy Hicks.

Lucy Hicks ran a well-attended combination boarding house and bordello in Oxnard during World War II. But when Lucy got married, everyone--including the groom--found out her secret: She was actually a he. Those boys who once bragged about visiting Lucy’s house of fun later came to deny they ever heard of her.

Just ask the old-timers at the packed table near the back of BG’s about Lucy Hicks and within moments the jokes, teasing and double-entendres flow like the black coffee they drink.

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“Oh, my God, Lucy Hicks, she was an awfully good cook!” chuckled John McGrath, 84, whose parents once hired Lucy Hicks to work in their kitchen. The farming family, which settled in the Oxnard area in the 19th century, donated the land for St. John’s Regional Medical Center in October 1992.

“She’d go out and dress up all the girls for the parties,” said Douglas Carty, 70, whose father, Ed, served as Oxnard mayor from 1944-50. Several Oxnard streets are named after Carty family members. “She was a real nice gal. Real friendly and big.”

They also jab each other with playful insults, like their nickname--James A. “Digger” Reardon--for the retired head of James A. Reardon Mortuary in Oxnard.

“He had one of the greatest collection of used shoes in the county,” quipped Rees.

Or, his friends would tell him he could never leave the mortuary because he “couldn’t let the bodies get away.”

Reardon, 82, just sits back and tiredly says to his friends, “Yeah, and those jokes are still old.”

They also have certain rituals like flipping a coin to see who ends up footing the bill. With sometimes 20 fellows drinking coffee, the bill tends to get pretty hefty.

And the biggest occasion of them all? The Super Bowl betting pool. In the days before Super Bowl Sunday, BG’s is jokingly known as “BG’s Coffee Shop and Bookie Joint.”

Though the majority of their time is spent cajoling and teasing each other, these men, who have lived so long and seen so much, also talk about their lifelong passion for farming.

Many of those around the big table have since sold their land when they found farming to be no longer profitable.

“Oxnard had good farmland,” said John Dullams, former president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “That’s why we are all sitting around drinking coffee . . . ‘cause we’ve sold our lands.”

Sadly, the group is not as large as it once was. Nearly half a dozen of the original group have passed away. But for those remaining, these mornings provide them a chance to come together and reminisce.

“All of us have had a full life,” said Dullams. “All I can say is that they are the most honest people I know and the friendliest. I don’t know where you find a better group than what you have here.”

A few tables over, another group of old friends gather every morning as well. Though this group of non-farmers is relatively younger, their ties to Oxnard and Ventura County also go back several generations.

There’s Chuck Covarrubias, 59, whose family landed in Santa Barbara County from Spain in the late 19th century and who served as the president of the Ventura County Museum of History and Art. Or Stanley “Doc” Braff, 80, who opened one of the first optometrist offices in Oxnard in 1945. And the youngster of the group, Tom Laubacher Jr., 45, whose father, Tom Laubacher Sr., served as a Ventura County supervisor from 1976-80.

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And one of this group’s favorite topics is politics.

Any Oxnard-area candidate who wants to get a pulse on the community stops by BG’s for a cup of coffee with the regulars. Most of last year’s city and statewide candidates came around for a visit. Those politicians who didn’t stop by this year--like newly elected City Councilman John Zaragoza--will eventually show up, the group confidently predicts.

“When John wises up, he’ll come around,” said Laubacher with a hearty chuckle.

But what will happen to their morning gatherings if BG’s is sold? Well, both groups say they would still meet somewhere, but it won’t be the same.

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“It isn’t everyone who would put up with people just having coffee,” said Covarrubias.

Added Braff: “[Bill] makes the best corned beef hash of anywhere else. He is a fine chef.”

But they pledge not to stop their daily gatherings.

“We can’t duplicate Gloria,” said George Rees. “But, we’ll find another place to meet, believe me.”

Though she said she will miss her friends, Gloria is looking forward to retirement. She thinks maybe turning the shop into a 1950s-style diner would go well with a proposed 14-screen theater city officials have promised to begin building across the street before the end of the year.

“We need to let some younger person come in,” she said. “New ideas are good. That is what the future is about.”