75 Years In The Making

My 75th birthday party: Part 1

After getting the barn ready for my 75th birthday party, we had a very successful afternoon with our friends and family. We started working on cleaning up the barn in January as I only had about a week every three weeks when I felt well enough to get cleaning done. It was not an easy task, but the results were more than expected. When you have a spouse like Mary Ellen, good stuff happens. The title of this article comes from a sign that a good friend of ours from Illinois had made and sent to us the week before the party. Very appropriate.

The first set of pictures is those I took the day before the party after we had everything ready to go. David provided the curtains around the band area to help cut down the echo. We obtained tables and chairs from friends, and Mary Ellen created an amazing environment.

We moved the vehicle lift to one side with the 29 Dodge (gift from my Dad when I was in junior high school) and placed the 62 MGA under it to provide some color. David provided his drum set. The engine next to the MGA will be going into the 29 Dodge later this year.

The 1910 Model T that was my Dad’s was back behind the band area. It has a few of the best in class ribbons it has won at the Concours d’Elegances we attended with it.

We had tables set up so everyone could sit down with their food and enjoy the jazz band. There are a few pictures on the wall under the thirties Ford sign acquired at Barrett-Jackson a few years ago.

Mary Ellen also set up a vintage display in the wood shop and office of the barn for everyone to enjoy. Found stuff from when I was drag racing my Honda in Lewistown during high school, jewelry and clothes from our family, a picture from our second date at MSU in 1966, and technical stuff from my career at Hughes Aircraft and Motorola.

Mary Ellen even made my shop benches look good with some old tools and pictures.

I am about to exceed the email size limit for SubStack so will stop here and create a second post with pictures and video from party day.