A Party and some family history

Two brothers, cousins of mine put on a surprise 75th birthday for their mother yesterday.  Kathy, their mom is a first cousin of mine that I share a lot of history with.  My parents Dorothy and Ed were best friends with his brother and wife, Bill and Bonnie throughout my entire childhood.  There were many nights at their home in West Dearborn with parents playing pinochle (a game I never understood) and Joan and I hanging around with our cousins Kathy, David and their little brother Mark.  This house hosted many basement parties with lots of beer and booze consumed.  The attendees were mostly neighbors so driving home was not part of the picture.

We all grew up.  Some of us survived to be senior citizens.  Kathy's dear husband died ten years ago from some virus.  He was well and in a month, he was gone, a truly wonderful guy.  His memory was discussed at length with all of us sharing stories we remembered.  When we were kids and our parents sent us to the 6 Mile theater for a movie, we walked down Woodward Ave in front of Palmer Park each holding about 50 cents for the movie and popcorn.  And Kathy was in charge of us, a fact proclaimed by our parents.  

Matthew, the one on the left and Gregory at his side, although being very different now make a great brotherly team.  Matt has a husband, David and their relationship stands on the shoulders of the gay men before them that suffered countless indignities and pain.  Some of those guys are life long friends of mine and I have heard their stories.  Matthew and David are married, happy and their families are happy and  love them both.  This collection of people in this setting is a testament to how things can be in a more perfect world.  Greg, a really likable guy in the film business who has a wonderful girlfriend, Sara, who I met tonight.  She and I swapped photos and she loved the photo of the bearded dragon with the party hat from Jamie Clark.  He and Andrew are pals with infrequent hangouts. 

I got to meet David's parents, wonderful folks that like us have a disabled daughter.  Vito and I discussed at length the pitfalls of the lacking social safety net for the disabled.  He is a spectacular cook and made eggplant parmigiana that was without parallel. He of course down played his talents.  

Matthew and my Katey had crazy fun in their earlier days, always getting into some kind of trouble.  I will make it my mission to get them together for a reunion.

well, that's it. 

all for now

stay safe