“Old Broads” offer advice, along with a few chuckles

Bankhouse Coffee, a popular hangout in Long Beach, takes on a different vibe when four University of Southern Mississippi graduates sit down to dish out servings of both wisdom and laughter at a corner table.

All four ladies graduated from Long Beach High School, and each holds a degree in education. The seasoned and often hilarious quartet consists of Kathleen Hodgins, age 70; Cheryl Batey Nyberg, 70; Cindy Vogt Rogers, 69; and Sue Ritter Hatem, 70.  Three attended the same kindergarten class, and all four remain close friends today.

“We all went to school together, we graduated in 1971, all had degrees in teaching, but we branched out into other fields,” explained Nyberg.

This lively group of Long Beach residents calls themselves the “Old Broads,” and their advice is advertised as “good and bad and always free.”  They have t-shirts to prove it. Member Cheryl Nyberg was instrumental in getting the ladies together, designing the shirts and making a sign for the Old Broads; she is the artist in the group.

The ladies approached the owners of the coffee shop and were given permission to set up a table at Bankhouse, and the rest is history. Locals are offered advice ranging from silly antidotes to more serious topics, such as the importance of life-saving health screenings.

“However, we try to be more lighthearted,” noted former social worker Kathleen Hodgins.  The only thing they won’t discuss, the group agreed, is politics.

“The wisdom that we’re sharing, if you want to call it that,” Hodgins said, “might be serious, but the point is to make people happy and provide giggles.”

The group, who present a different perspective on age, are funny, intelligent, wise and full of life. Hodgins, who admitted she had dreaded turning seventy, said the depression lifted when she finally reached the milestone.

“I never said I was sixty-nine years old. When asked how old I was, I would say, ‘I will be seventy next year.’ Now that I’m seventy, it’s not big of a deal,” admits Hodgins. 

Behind the term “old broads” are four women who held their own in outstanding professional careers and have impacted the community.

Hodgins, who holds a degree in education, was a social worker and Special Education Case Manager for forty-two years. She played the trumpet in high school and currently plays in the Coast Big Band, a local Mississippi Coast big band orchestra. An avid animal lover, Hodgins has been instrumental in caring for (she has cat condos on her front porch) and rehoming cats in her neighborhood.

Nyberg has a degree in art education but found her career in marketing/real estate and as a financial analyst. She lived in Orlando for twenty years and returned home to Long Beach six months ago. The backbone of the Old Broads, Nyberg took up clogging two years ago and now teaches a class on the coast.

Sue Hatem is a former state president of the American Federation of Teachers, a lobbyist on the state and national levels, and a retired middle school teacher. Hatem was married for fifty years to the late Ed Hatem, a fellow classmate. She currently volunteers at a Gulfport hospital and cares for her slew of chickens. The group noted that Sue’s husband, Ed, was lovingly known as Long Beach’s “chicken guru.”

Rogers, a former fourth- and fifth-grade teacher, also instructed student teachers at USM. She lives in the county on seven acres with her dog, rescued kittens and chickens. Rogers teaches yoga, walks five miles daily on her treadmill and is the youngest of the group.

Even at seventy, or almost seventy, the Old Broads don’t have all the answers.  They can, however, promise those who sit at their table a good time, a few chuckles and maybe even a little advice. And they want everyone to remember: their life experiences, stories and words of wisdom are free.