Ben's 30th Birthday/Azusa Gang Reunion

July 28, 2011

Today’s Quote

If at first you don’t succeed,

SKYDIVING is not for you.

My kids lost their father when they were very young, just 3 and 1 years old. I have tried to keep his memory alive by writing a story every year on the anniversary of his birthday. Each year Mike Day has been a little different. Sometimes it is just an e-mailed story and sometimes the family gets together. Maybe I was afraid I was going to run out of Mike stories, but somehow I got the idea to get the old Azusa Gang together to let them tell some Mike stories so that the kids would get to know the kind of person their dad was before he got depressed and died. Since this year was a milestone birthday for my son, who turned 30, I asked Ben if I could combine his birthday with a reunion of his Dad's old friends.

This photo includes my good friend Pam, who has known me since before I met Mike, Mike's 2 brothers, Alan and Gene, who came down from Oregon for the party, and 2 couples who we spent a lot of time with in the 1970's and 1980's: Walt & Kathy and Bruce & Kay. I had hoped the Dickerson's would also show since we spent every weekend with them for about 10 years, but unfortunately, they did not come.

Walt and Kathy brought their daughter and her family. I knew Leslie until she was about 4 years old. I had several pictures of her in various stages of undress which I gave to her. She was an adorable child and still beautiful.

Young Leslie

Leslie now, with her husband and daughter

Of course, family was there: Dad, Tina, Bro and his family, me and my kids. My grandson Logan was there too, but somehow missed this picture.

We all sat around reminiscing for hours. I had some poster boards prepared - one with Mike pictures and one with pictures of Ben growing up. I brought a couple of old photo albums and created trays out of some old LPs to put loose snapshots in. Those were easy to create since Mike had a large record album collection back in the day. The pictures ignited memories and we recorded some of the stories on videotape. Everyone stayed until it was too dark to see outside and then the old gang was gone again.

1979 Wedding