… Sometimes just a wee bit too easily.

4:30 AM, July 5th.

Last night at the 17th Annual Party on the White House Lawn, …  No not THAT White House!  You dimwit! The one that belongs to the White Family here in West Middlesex (Ok… The house is White as well.) …  Yeesh!

It was time to partake of the party’s use of the Community Swimming Pool, which happens to be located just across the street.  The day had brought high humidity and heat which made swim time even more appealing.  It brought my internal core temperature down from somewhere between white hot molten steel or lava to the temperature of say… molten lead.  But I digress… I didn’t do a whole lot of swimming due to the number of folks in the pool and the fact that I was already tired from the heat.  It felt good just to hang around in the cool water.

A young mother and her, lets say, three year old son were acclimating to the water.  The child would awkwardly point to something outside the pool and above the general eye line.  Being the righteously attentive parent she was, the young lady asked her son, “What are you looking at?”  He quickly and very clearly replied, “The moon!”  She said, “That’s not the moon…”  My inner geek quickly… and apparently quite loudly because six people turned and looked at me… replied…

(All my geek friends say it along with me!)

“… It’s a Space Station!”

D’oh!

By the strange looks I was getting, I was not in the company of other Geeks or at least not anyone who was even semi-familiar with the Star Wars franchise.  I quietly mumbled, “Wrong generation I guess.”  and moved off to another area of the pool.

You may be looking at the time stamp on this and saying to yourself, “What the heck is he doing writing a blog at that hour of the morning?”

I try to help as much as I can with the party.  My back problems have become somewhat limiting in the amount of carrying and such that I can do.  I leave that to the younger folks.  I try to help keep pop and water stocked and iced, things like that.  One of the tasks I have not given up yet is helping launch the 38 or so minute fireworks presentation that ends the night.  It makes me hurt… hence the reason for this blog being timed such that it is… but I enjoy doing it.  It’s a blast… PUN INTENDED!

The show is set loosely to music.  This year had a Disney theme.   Well, to be honest, so did last year’s but something went amiss with the cd’s or the players and the music didn’t play.  When you have three quarters of the town lining the streets to see a show that they probably think is put on by the borough, you can’t just say “Sorry folks, The music won’t play so we aren’t going to shoot tonight.”  Since we didn’t use it last year, the music was rerecorded… checked… and rechecked to make sure it would play.  Play it did!  We are a low budget… high tech group.  The music is broadcast over FM radio.  We have speakers setup at the launch site so that Rick (White) can follow his armband play list and call the plays… errrrrr shots.  The show is video taped and parts of previous year’s shows can be found on youtube.com.

Kudos go out to the White family:  Rick and his fiancée Kelly – who drive the event each year, Rick’s sister Tammy – who run’s around like a chicken with her head cut off to keep all the little details with the food and drink in order, Rick’s Mom Delores – for allowing the whole bash to take place in her front yard, side yard, garage, basement, driveway … you get the point…

There are also a few folks that help year after year.  These are folks that really appreciate what the White’s do for the community by putting on this party.  They range from folks like Brad and John, who spent the day on the wood fired grill cooking burgers and dogs to others like myself who pitch in where ever needed.

This party is no minor deal.  This shindig starts its production the moment the last one ends.  What started as a simple group of friends getting together, has now morphed into a gathering that most of the community looks forward to.  It may be thrown together by a small band of rebellious individuals (geek again), but it has the feel of any large special event.  It even has garnered the attention of a few local corporate sponsors.

Thanks to Rick and his family for allowing us to celebrate with them.  Tomorrow brings cleanup and then off to prepare for next year.

(I was tinkering with an audio edit of “The Imperial March” to go behind this blog.  The file was too big when kept with any quality.  I noticed the sun was coming up so I gave up on that idea)

~Cappy