(Some of the names below may not be familiar to the current breakfast
crew.. so I hope to put up a member directory sometime.
Actually breakfast club MEMBER is not really a
good term, sounds like someone who paid dues or something. A fellowship
comes to mind. But just a gaggle of friends is probably best way to think
of the Ritual!)

Here , as best I remember*.... is a sort of History of the Houston Science
Fiction (SF) Ritual Breakfast Club.
It all starts in 1966 when I met Jeff Haverlah at the World SF Convention
in Cleveland in 1966. I noticed he was from Houston. Told me there was a SF
club in Houston. A surprise to me. It was founded sometime like 1965 or
so by Lissa Tuttle,Joanne Burger, Joe and Dennis Pumilia.
 So I joined the Houston Science Fiction Society
, HSFS. The history of HSFS is a looooong story… maybe the Friends of Fandom
site has a history there. Suffice to say the HSFS lasted longer than any
Texas SF fan club I know, at least as an active club. **

But as usual the jaws of entropy set in… and by the early 1980s the
HSFS had declined to point near dis-bandment. Finally to the point of Dennis
and Joe having a once-a-year old timer party in January..
and alas seems that is gone now too! (Near 30 years! of active and
quasi and even ghostly HSFS presence was not bad at all.)

Just to keep the some of the gang together Rory Harper and Doug Potter
formed a breakfast club to meet every Saturday at 9am at Phill’s (where
the 59 Dinner is today). This must have been in 1981 or 82. By this time
not only were HSFS members coming but also Rory’s writers workshop folk
, various camp followers and god knows what all.

I did not start coming to the Ritual till about 1984 or so but one thing
about it Phil’s was a great place! The breakfast food was above average
and best of all they had kind of big back room and a big table. My recollection
is that was the time when the biggest crowd came. Sometimes 25 or so people
would so up about half I knew; Somewhere around 1986 or so Phills
lost it’s lease, had been at that location since before WWII. I always
will remember the last Ritual at Phills.... because about 50 people came!
I know that was the biggest crowd we ever had. At least half those people
I have never seen again.

Doug shopped around for new place. We meet at STACKS on Montrose for
a while and then moved to the Bayou Inn on Memorial for about 6 months.
The long gone Bayou Inn was great because they let us use this separate
room with a long table. They had a nice buffet. This was great because
people would wander in at all hours of the morning and could eat without
having to order. As I remember the place was kind of fake antique looking
… but it was also empty on Saturday mornings. So you can see that would
not last!

After the Bayou Inn closed we spent most of the late 80’s at PERKY’S
which became THE ELITE. It was quite similar to Phils as dinner;
What I remember about that place was that we shared the tail end of another
breakfast ....; A Golden Wings crew. Mostly over 50 bikers , they were
neat!

Somewhere in there we were at Alice’s Dinner on Beachnut near me. But
this was not for long because it was Chinese restaurant and everything
tasted like it had been cooked in peanut oil.

When THE ELITE finally closed , somewhere round 1990, we drifted about
trying out all kinds of places. Problem we always have is that the Ritual
is sometimes 4 people sometimes 15. Its hard to find a place that
lets us expand the table. Thats how we landed at Randall’s Cafe
at Westheimer and Shepherd... in , I think, 1991. Table expansion and having
room is a long time problem for us. One reason we are at Biba's right now...
where I am not all that fond of the breakfast food but its adequate.

Hmm…. 1991 to  1997 , six years was long time for us to last at a restaurant.
It was during  our sojourn at Randalls that John Moffitt finally became a regular member.
Ol Mof was an old time member of the HSFS. That brought in some new people.

(I will put a list of known and unknown! members of the Ritual somewhere
on the web page.)

Where we meet now is on the web page.

As far as I know John Moore and I are the only members left who went
to the old old old Phils founding group (tho if Cliff ever shows up again
I think he might have been there at one time.)

So.... as Oat Willy used to say ‘ONWARD.. THROUGH THE FOG!’
 
 

Footnote: We used to have a Sister Ritual in Austin founded
by Doug Potter when he moved there. I used to attend whenever I was at
Armadillocon.. they were about for many years … but I think the Austin
Ritual is defunct now.)

*Maybe John Moore can straighten out some of the time line I and details
I have forgotten. If I can get in touch with
Rory and Doug maybe they can relate the beginnings better.

** Science Fiction fandom probably needs a better explanation , for
those not familiar. Suffice to say .. it started in the 1920’s with SF
readers and lasts even to this day as clubs and conventions here and there
without any formal structure. Which always amazed me. Hobbyists from model
airplane flyers to stamp collectors have national organizations…and even
tho such has existed in a small way for SF.. there is still nothing formal.
It is still just a lose sister/brother-hood of people interested in SF.
For many decades it was just people who read prose SF, but nowadays its
TV, Movies, Games, and god knows what sub fandoms. By the by notice I do
not use the term Sci-Fi , which to old timers is still considered at racial
slur!