By Bob Bowman In towns across East Texas, big and small, there's usually a place where elderly men gather each morning to have a cup or two of coffee ... and solve the world's problems. Well, maybe some of the problems.

The other morning, Doris and I stopped at McDonald's in Gilmer on the way back to Lufkin from Mount Pleasant.

And, there they were - Gilmer's elderly coffee drinkers, clustered around a table in the corner, attacking the world's biggest issues with enthusism. Kidding them, I asked if they represented the collective wisdom of Gilmer.

"Nope," said one of them, "here, the women have all the wisdom; we just pretend we do."

The morning coffee drinkers in other East Texas towns aren't as truthful as those in Gilmer.

And they don't usually go to McDonald's for their coffee.

In Lufkin, we once had a bunch of men who went to a local feed store in the downtown area for their morning coffee, but they eventually moved to a truck stop cafe until the cafe closed its doors.

I haven't checked to see if they have a new home, but I suspect they do.

I wondered why Gilmer's wise men went to McDonald's until I found out the coffee was free after the first cup, not only in the morning but in the afternoon when the wise men came back for a second session of world problemsolving.

McDonald's is probably smart by hosting the wisdom table.

The restaurant not only sells food to the coffee-drinkers, but the manager can probably call on any of them if he needs a problem solved. After all, if the wisdom table is willing to tackle the world's problems, a plumbing problem ought to be a cinch.

The morning we stopped at the table, the conversation was going full speed over the outcome of the presidential race. Although East Texas is normally Democratic, I suspect that most of the men at the wisdom table voted Republican.

But one of the coffee drinkers admitted that Barack Obama was smart, eloquent, and had two cute daughters. "Yep," said another coffee drinker, "and he has a nice tan, too."

I wanted to stick around and see if the wisdom table could solve some of my problems.

But the highway beckoned, the radio was playing a song by Willie Nelson and I knew there were other wisdom tables down the road.

(Bob Bowman of Lufkin is the author of 40 books about East Texas. He can be reached at bobbowman. com)