A Deb Karnes idea led to four couples/friends seeking culinary adventure once a month starting in November 2002. The idea has held up remarkably well despite retirements the trevails of life. The one exception has been the Covid months when dining outside was untenable.

The starting four couples:

---Deb & Tom Karnes
---Deb & Don Teator
---Judy & Tim Adams
---Kriss & Ken Monteverd

There was a teacher in each couple: three from Cairo-Durham and one from Hudson; one school worker, and three "real" world workers.

With the moving of the Adamses in 2013, and in case of illness or vacation, the group maintained the table of eight with supplementing from a group of eight friends on a rotating basis. One of those couples, Joyce and Mark Notarnicola, became regular members in 2017.

 Life Changes:

-- July 2006: retirement of the Hudson teacher
-- July 2009: "retirement" of the school worker
-- Spring 2010: half retirement of one "real worlder"; full-time by late 2011
-- July 2010: retirement of a Cairo-Durham teacher
-- June 2011: retirement another Cairo-Durham teacher
-- Jan 2013: another "real worlder"
-- Aug 1, 2013 -- the Adamses move
-- June 2014 -- retirement of another C-D teacher, the last one
-- May 2017: first pick of new regular members Mark & Joyce

-- late 2018 – last retirement

-- July 2019 – 200 th dinner a Albany Times-Union article

-- March-October 2020 – Covid Take-out dinners

-- November 2020 – May 2021: suspension of dining

The other subs

-- Julie & Kerry Quinn
-- Dennis Mower & guest
-- Lynda Pisano & Ross Burhouse