Thanks for the response.
The files were created 20 - 25 years ago on an early Mac, almost certainly with Microsoft Word. The "get info" function calls one of them a "Microsoft Word 1.x-5.x. document". No extension is visible. I'm looking at them now on my Mac Mini 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo running OS 10.5.8. I do not have the classic environment installed.
I have copied the files (via drag and drop) onto a PNY USB stick. I'd like to find someplace that could convert the files to any format that would let me retrieve the text. I have Apple's Pages, Neo-Office and, of course, Text Edit available on my machine.
Any suggestions more than welcomed.