A 30th Birthday Party

Got a birthday coming up and it's hard to believe that his "Birthday Dance Party" was 44 years ago. I guess that means I'm 74 this week. 

So I came across this flyer for this party in that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I've been going through recently.

I remember that 30th birthday party very well. We had a very large crowd show up at the Pastime Lounge on Grant Street for it on December 5th 1981. It was a Saturday night. The music for the party came through the bar's sound system from the sound booth where I was playing some mixes I made for the event. 

We wanted to have a party in a bar somewhere I we went around and talked with the folks at a few of them. We didn't want to rent a special event space somewhere because we really didn't have the money for it. Those rental spaces were expensive. We just wanted to go to a regular bar somewhere but we wanted to be able to control the music.

We also didn't want some fancy bar. A dive bar was preferrable. I did talk with a few places on Elmwood but that wasn't going to work. We also really wanted to do it on a Saturday night. I remember checking out a few bars on Grant street. They definitely fit the dive bar description.

I would end up working at the Pastime Lounge for five years.1982 to 1986. I had a lot of fun spinning records there and booking local bands. I even bartended a little bit... a very little bit.

The owner at the time was Bobby's father and mother. Bob worked there spinning records on Friday nights. That was their busy night and Bob's mother cooked a popular fish fry that night. Saturday night was always a slow night which is why Bob's father gave me the OK to come in with a party and play the music too.

Becky and I would have a few more parties at the bar including our annual 60's party and a couple of after art opening parties. I played the music for those parties and we had a good crowd. It was soon after that the family hired me for every Saturday night and eventually I also worked some other nights too.

In that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I found lots of flyers for the Pastime Lounge that I made to promote the local bands playing on our stage and for the nights that I was the DJ playing music.

My Fall of Troy

When going through that old box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor I came across the old rolled up drawing I did in 2nd grade depicting the Trojan War and the Fall of Troy. I was really obsessed with ancient history like this at a very early age. Seven years old!!

I do remember making this drawing on that long piece of paper and rolling it up when I was done. I guess it was part of some class. Maybe a Friday afternoon art project at our school... St. Francis of Assissi in Germantown and located down the street from our house. So Mom kept that drawing for decades and it got passed to me somewhere along the way. 

I think this drawing was probably made toward the end of the academic year when we were allowed to do a lot of art projects so that would make it the late spring of 1958 and I was seven years old. I was trying to think back on who my 2nd grade teacher but I'm just not sure.

I do remember making this drawing on that long piece of paper and rolling it up when I was done. I guess it was part of some Friday afternoon art project at our school. Somehow over the decades that rolled paper made it from my mom's attic to my box of old "stuff".

I would go on to read many books on the Trojan War over the years and obsessed over Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. I must have seen some movie that got me going with it.

I broke up the picture of the drawing into three parts to see it better. When I found the drawing it was rolled up into one little tube that was hard to know what it was. Then I unrolled it.

Escher Quartet

We had another wonderful evening in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall listening to the Escher Quartet along with flute player Carol Wincenc. We enjoyed the concert very much and especially the awesome sounding second piece Verde's Quartet in E Minor. The flute player was very good and with a distinctive sound.

The concert was very crowded too despite the potential bad weather which nicely stayed away. It turned out to be a very pleasant night to drive back and forth from Kleinhans on Elmwood Avenue. There was no expected snow. We also parked for the second time in a very good new location just across the street from the concert.

This was the last concert in the Buffalo Chamber Music series until late February. Then there are three more concerts in the series... February, March and April. But for now we have a winter and holiday break.

Glass of Beer - A Beer Named Duck

When Lizzie and Lewie were visiting us last Sunday while passing through Buffalo on their way to Cleveland for the holidays Lewie gave me a 4 pack pint cans of local beers from the Providence area. A finally got to try one tonight.

A Beer Named Duck. A New England Pale Ale from Mast Landing Brewing Co. out of Westbrook, Maine. A nicely hoppy crisp pale ale. Very good. Thank you Lewie and Lizzie. Looking forward to trying the others.

Eating Leftovers

Becky and I got some nice leftovers from the pile of Fat Bob's BBQ takeout from Clara's birthday party on Saturday night. We had some for dinner tonight but there's still more and definitely enough for dinner tomorrow night too.

Still very tasty too.

Fat Bob's Takeout

We had a dinner of Fat Bob's BBQ takeout at Clara's birthday party at Dick and Iris'. When we arrived at the apartment Dick was just leaving to go pickup the food from Fat Bob's which is nearby.

The food was delicious as always and there was a lot of it. A nice variety of sides too in addition to the beef brisket, pulled pork and ribs. There was BBQ baked beans, mac & cheese, grilled vegetables, cajun corn, collard greens, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and cornbread. Some fries too.

Dick gave us several boxes of leftovers to take with us. It's enough for a couple of meals.

We had some nice desserts too... birthday cake and pumpkin pie along with some of Donna's cookies.

Clara's Birthday Party

The family had a birthday party for Clara downtown at the Dick and Iris' apartment. We were originally going to have it at our house until I got sick. Although I'm feeling better we thought it best not to have everyone over to our house with the virus germs potentially lurking throughout the house. Instead we had the party at the hotel where Katie and the kids were staying. We met everyone down there at 5:30 pm. The next day they would be driving back to Phila. 

We had a wonderful time with the family and it was great seeing Dick and Iris again. It's been awhile. Clara had a great time with her big number seven balloon and she got some more very nice birthday gifts. Her birthday presents have been scattered over several days because of the drawn out birthday weekend celebrations.

We had a nice dinner of takeout food from Fat Bob's BBQ along with a nice birthday cake from Wegmans and one of Becky's pumpkin pies. We had also brought some leftover cookies of Donna's from her Thanksgiving dinner.

Clara had a great time opening her gifts from us and from Auntie Ashley which we brought with us. Ashley had sent it to our house.

I thought it was funny to see myself reflected in the window taking this picture.

Thanksgiving Dinner @ Dave & Donna's

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at Dave and Donna's as usual. Dave did a fabulous job with the smoked turkey and Donna put on her usual fantastic spread.

I was sick this week but glad I was feeling much better for the family dinner. I rested much of the day and it was really a last minute decision as to whether I should go or not. I'm glad I went.

They had the usual regular crowd including Amy and Doug along with Elizabeth and Natalie. Tom and Diane were there but that's another story. Eric and Amy with little Ivy. Val came and she brought a friend Pete who was a close friend of Bobby's who didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. Doug and Amy's son Joey showed up with his girlfriend with their 3 month old baby girl. They just stayed for about an hour. And Katie, Todd, Henry, Clara and Violet were there too.

Donna had a wonderful dessert spread that included one of Becky's pumpkin pies. There was an amazing amount of Donna's cookies and lots of other pies too. It was a typical Gasper Special kind of night.

Sick Sick Sick

I got really sick this week. Mostly for a day and a half. On Monday late evening I felt a little off. It had been a beautiful day. Sunny but cold and I worked hard in the backyard. Monday night in bed I felt dizzy and had an upset stomach. I had some kind of bug.

Tuesday morning I woke up and threw up. I felt awful and the room was sometimes spinning frantically. I spent all day in bed. I did get up for about 20 minutes in the afternoon and ate a couple of crackers along with a cup of tea. That was it and then back to bed.

I slept for about 33 hours. The real issue was that Katie and the kids were coming for the Thanksgiving holiday and I was sick. They were driving to Syracuse on Tuesday. They left in the afternoon after school and planed to stay overnight at a motel in Syracuse and then driving to Buffalo on Wednesday morning arriving at our house around lunch. When Katie found out how sick I was they scrambled for an alternative place to stay. We weren't sure how that was going to work out because of the holidays. It turned out that they were able to book a large suite room at the hotel downtown where Dick and Iris have their apartment up on the 14th floor. 

So they spent time with Dick and Iris instead of us for the first couple of days. It took me awhile but I started feeling better. We still were very worried about having the kids over with active germs in the house so it was better for them to be downtown.

I plan to rest and sleep a lot today. I am feeling a little better. I'll rest tomorrow morning and then hopefully I'll feed better enough to go over to Dave and Donna's for Thanksgiving dinner. Then we can make some plans for the rest of the holiday weekend.

Katie and the kids are planning to drive back to Philly on Sunday but unfortunately the weather is calling for some snow. It may be a tough drive for Todd.

Happy Birthday Clara

Today is our granddaughter Clara's 7th birthday. Celebrating this little girl's birthday will happen over several days. She already had a party at school before they left for the long holiday weekend. Today she will have a little celebration with her other grandparents downtown at their apartment. We will celebrate her party on Saturday along with Dick and Iris again. Looking forward to it. I've been sick this week so hopefully I'll be feeling much better.