We’re getting to be pretty good at these graduation parties. Experience helps.
When Lauren graduated from Main Campus University a couple of weeks ago we asked her what she wanted for her graduation party and she said she wanted pretty much what we did for her high school graduation party, except without the bouncy house. We are all older now and considerably less bouncy than we used to be, after all, and this seemed a wise choice.
Plus, it’s not like we had the bouncy house for her high school party either. It was arranged and ready to go, but at 6:30am on the day of the party the rental place called and pointed my attention to the forecast (notably the phrase “high winds”) and canceled on us. In the end the winds stayed away and we had a good party without it.
This year we figured we’d skip the middleman and just not worry about it.
So we set about to organizing one (1) Midwestern Graduation Party (tm). I have to say that this is one of the nicer traditions I’ve discovered since moving to this part of the country and I’m kind of sorry we didn’t do this sort of thing in the Philadelphia area when I was graduating from various institutions of secondary and higher education. Basically it’s an open house. You fire up the grill and cook burgers, dogs, and brats for those who wish them – and as has become standard for our version of this festival, we contacted one of our local Mexican restaurants, one of the ones where you go in and discover you’re the only one speaking English in the entire place, and bought many pounds of birria, asada, and al pastor for a taco bar to go with it all – and then clear out the garage and set up the buffet in there. Side dishes tend to accumulate, large bowls of various kinds of chips and dips appear at the far end of the table, drinks are put into carefully separated coolers (Soft Drinks, Water/Seltzer, and Alcohol) and there’s a veggie tray for people who like to pretend this can be a healthy meal and a sheet cake for the rest of us.
We sent out graduation announcements with invitations on the back even before Lauren graduated. Kim and I cleared out the local Costco a week or so ago and then spent much of the intervening time obtaining all of the things that we either didn’t think to buy there or decided to get somewhere else where the minimum purchase unit was not the pallet. Friday and Saturday we got the place ready, de-shamble-izing the garage, setting up chairs and tables, prepping all the things that couldn’t really be prepped too far in advance, and waiting for people to show up.
And show up they did!
We had Family!
When Lauren graduated from Main Campus University a couple of weeks ago we asked her what she wanted for her graduation party and she said she wanted pretty much what we did for her high school graduation party, except without the bouncy house. We are all older now and considerably less bouncy than we used to be, after all, and this seemed a wise choice.
Plus, it’s not like we had the bouncy house for her high school party either. It was arranged and ready to go, but at 6:30am on the day of the party the rental place called and pointed my attention to the forecast (notably the phrase “high winds”) and canceled on us. In the end the winds stayed away and we had a good party without it.
This year we figured we’d skip the middleman and just not worry about it.
So we set about to organizing one (1) Midwestern Graduation Party (tm). I have to say that this is one of the nicer traditions I’ve discovered since moving to this part of the country and I’m kind of sorry we didn’t do this sort of thing in the Philadelphia area when I was graduating from various institutions of secondary and higher education. Basically it’s an open house. You fire up the grill and cook burgers, dogs, and brats for those who wish them – and as has become standard for our version of this festival, we contacted one of our local Mexican restaurants, one of the ones where you go in and discover you’re the only one speaking English in the entire place, and bought many pounds of birria, asada, and al pastor for a taco bar to go with it all – and then clear out the garage and set up the buffet in there. Side dishes tend to accumulate, large bowls of various kinds of chips and dips appear at the far end of the table, drinks are put into carefully separated coolers (Soft Drinks, Water/Seltzer, and Alcohol) and there’s a veggie tray for people who like to pretend this can be a healthy meal and a sheet cake for the rest of us.
We sent out graduation announcements with invitations on the back even before Lauren graduated. Kim and I cleared out the local Costco a week or so ago and then spent much of the intervening time obtaining all of the things that we either didn’t think to buy there or decided to get somewhere else where the minimum purchase unit was not the pallet. Friday and Saturday we got the place ready, de-shamble-izing the garage, setting up chairs and tables, prepping all the things that couldn’t really be prepped too far in advance, and waiting for people to show up.
And show up they did!
We had Family!
We had the Parent Friends, though to be honest there’s not much of a gap between those and the Graduate Friends or the Family since we all tend to get along.
And there were, as noted, the Graduate Friends, most of whom were people from Our Little Town and their partners, since the difference between a college graduation and a high school graduation is how many of the people taking part in the former ceremony have come from other places and not Here. People scatter. We are always happy to see old friends, though. Some of them have more or less grown up at our house anyway.
Although several of Lauren’s friends from the martini bar where she works just off campus made the journey down as well, and that was kind of them.
They brought with them a bottle of 138-proof dark rum that I actually liked, which was a huge surprise to me since I generally don’t like rum at all. Perhaps it has been long enough since I tried it that I should do some investigating on this subject.
People came and stayed for a bit, shared some food and stories, and moved on while others came in to do the same thing, as befits an open house. We had a lovely time of it. Some escaped the camera, some didn’t.
Eventually the party broke into three groups. Lauren and much of the Graduate Friends group walked over to the local soft-serve ice cream place for a while before returning briefly and then heading out for their own celebrations, which you can do once you reach a certain age in this country. Oliver and some of his friends hung out in the garage for a bit trading stories about the old days – stories that at some point required reference to yearbooks for corroboration. Kim and I joined for a little bit, as did Lauren and the ice cream group, but mostly we and some of the Parent Friends went inside where it was notably warmer and traded our stories there for a while.
Many people pitched in to help bring the food inside but beyond that we didn’t worry too much about cleaning up until this morning. It had been a fine and memorable party, and the chairs would still be there in the driveway when the sun came back up.
Congratulations Lauren! I’m proud of you.
2 comments:
Vivat!
As you know, we held a highly non-traditional MidWest Grad Party (tm) in Chicago this last weekend also. Much delight was had.
As it should be! I saw the post about the escape room as well - it looked like a good time. :)
Thanks and to you and yours as well!
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