Saturday night I ventured off to the Coneburg to order a grilled chicken salad to go. And what did I see in the parking lot as I pulled in? Whoa, it was a white stretch limousine! I thought at first there must be a celebrity on the premises. However, a quick reality check told me it wasn’t likely that I would enter the Coneburg Inn Grill and Pub and find Elvis in the house, right?

Right, Elvis was nowhere to be seen.

Instead there was a table of about 12 people who decided to party in Peabody and leave the driving to someone else. Smart folks! Some in the group were former Peabody residents who brought friends from Wichita for an evening in the old hometown. They rented a white stretch limo to get them to Peabody and back.

I am not going to tell you who they were because they deserve their privacy, but it was fun to visit with them and catch up on their news, find out what their children and parents were up to, and have a few laughs about the fact that, indeed, Elvis was not in the building!

I have no great moral or inspirational message to attach to what I have just typed. However, these “kids” were fun when they really were kids and now they still are enjoying themselves in their adult years. They gave a bit back to their hometown by stimulating the local economy while having an enjoyable evening with friends.

It was fun to have them back in Peabody, sharing their friends with us. We hope to see them here again!

I thought I would let you all know that my AARP membership is due and payable if I want to remain a member in good standing. However, I am not going to re-up. So there! You may remember that I am less than happy with that group because AARP haunts my mailbox on a daily basis with multiple offers of insurance to cover my life, my health, and every item I own. The messages are relentless.

The messages, despite their own warnings about identity theft, have my name and address printed multiple times on multiple pages. Making sure that information goes into the shredder (per the advice of AARP) before recycling the rest of the packet irritates me beyond belief. Besides, AARP never did send me any coupons for hotel, hamburger, or movie discounts, and those are the things I thought I would use.

I am unhappy with AARP’s cavalier disregard for my privacy. So I am not going to renew my membership this year. I am just going to sit back and hang on to that $16 membership fee and see what happens. I wonder what AARP does when a member quits. I hope the insurance offers will quit coming, but I am not betting on it.

I am going to see how this plays out. Stay with me, and I will let you know.

— SUSAN MARSHALL