Jane and Others

Last night I had a dream about Jane -- a hard working Jane cooking food for a large family gathering, probably influenced by Janice's recent hospital stay and the care Jane has given her in the past. Twice in the past.

But my thoughts didn't end there, they drifted to Cathy's sweet sixteen and the frog themed event we pulled together, kind of at the last minute if I recall correctly. I don't remember the cake, but what I do remember is finding the frog stickers and making invitations.
I remember making Mom and Dad's Fortieth Wedding Anniversary invitations with rub off letters. Not easy. Party invitations are much much much easier now with computer help.
Remember Mother's "Pack up the babies, and grab the old ladies" party?
Myriad panda cakes -- Julia.
Our USA's 200th birthday party with a sandpile "cake" with 200 candles. You should have seen the clerk's face when I bought every candle in the store from tapers to birthday. Yep, she thought I was crazy and probably getting ready to burn down the courthouse or something.
Roger had a failed swim party once. I had made plans at the college pool and gathered up nine kids. That was when you could pile nine kids in one car without breaking the law, but somebody forgot to tell the pool maintenance folks and the pool was being treated with chemicals. So, instead of a quick change of clothes it was a quick change of plans and I took the kiddo's to a local park where they ate hardy, acted silly, tumbled, laughed, raced, punched and probably enjoyed themselves more.
Josephine's house warming.
Ian's block party.
Christian's GI Joe party.
Jerry and Jane's 25th.
Art's surprise 50th with his twin brother and a bunch of us traveling tandem, sneaking into town. Janice helping Art wash the car because she didn't want him to open the trunk and find helium filled birthday balloons hidden there.
Janice's 60th, Janice's 70th.
Jean's 70th, I wasn't there but I the painted the t-shirt.
Jean's German chocolate cakes.
Amber's Lemon Sunshine cakes.
Halloween parties, Christmas parties.
Harvest parties, the squash dinner.
Jan's Christmas in July with cowboy hat, yep, dreamed of that hat last night also.
Christmas Eve dinners at that Chinese restaurant.
That made me think of Maxine playing hours of basketball.
Kids riding their bikes down the hill to the barn. One or two spills.
Watching all nine hours of the Godfather trilogy in one sitting.
Marc kicking the electric fence. Filling his pockets with candy eggs.
Andrew bringing me the pink jelly bean.
A doll party once, where the naked dolls were sent with the invitations for the girls to bring back dressed, then mom and I delivered them to Children's Hospital.
Several cookie decorating parties.
Dad making mom a wire Christmas tree so she could hang hundreds of cookies on it.
Pillsbury Doughboy cake -- Marc's.
Corvette cake -- Jeff's.
And who could guess how many Cinderella cakes mom made over the years.
Ian's after dance recital party, like a wrap party, again pulled together quickly at Jerry and Jane's.
Linda's pig party.
James garage sale fund raiser. Dad determined to tie that couch on top of the dude's car and the dude barely knowing what was going on. Yep, made $2.00 on that. As Jerry said, Dad probably used $2.00 worth of rope.
Jerry and Jane's Memorial Day events. How much smoking has Marc done? Hot tubbing.
Our Aunt Josephine was always a party.
Ye olde' Christmas' at the Gilbert's. The splendor of their trees could only be matched by the tree in the Nutcracker.
Rabbit skinning party -- I missed that one.
Roger's strawberry birthday -- Jean.
Stephanie's Thanksgiving with my friends and Ian's friends and Stephanie cooking.
My wedding shower -- Jane -- she cried.
Wedding cakes -- two or three.
Julia's connection for helium for balloons before you could buy them everywhere.
Mother's pig trough.
Giant donuts tied to the barn rafters for two people to eat with no hands. Naughty!
Bonfires weather permitting.
Clean up trash fires weather permitting.
"Dad, let's have a cup of coffee first and talk about it," -- Jan.
Fence painting parties, mailbox painting parties.
House cleaning, sewing, paining, decorating parties.
I want one of those.
Funeral parties, celebrating a life.
Nora being born party -- hotter than hell as I recall.
Circus tent raising party -- hotter than hell as I recall.
Christian screaming bloody murder at his 3rd B-Day in Chicago.
Easter parties, egg hunts.
4th of July parties, explosions.
Nail soup.
French fry party; a wood fire, two gallons of oil, a cast iron cauldron, and a garden of potatoes -- hotter than hell as I recall.
Bacon party, biscuit party, pie party. One time, I can't remember why, I made 7 or 8 desserts with lemon. Now why would I do that?
Jean's you-had-better-bake-or-there-will-be-a-riot Christmas goodies. Non negotiable.
One time mother made chili to supply props for one of Julia's plays. Only mother!

Son's dinner on the 17th; Corned beef and cabbage with Sopapilla dessert -- Jean. How's that for a party combination?

Dinners, events, get togethers, parties.
We did what we could with what we had.
Fun, food, fellowship.
Friendship.
It's nice being friends with your family.

Hum, we have never had a book reading or tree climbing party...