I went to a Yarger Party and everyone was there......

    I'm stealing a page from my friend Daphne this week, who uses more pictures than words in her blog to tell her stories. Now, she lives in a gorgeous area of Alaska, and I live in a sleepy little hamlet in Western NY, but you get the picture, or you will.

The Graduate and his cousin the photographer

     In my head, the title is sung like Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party", sans Yoko and the Walrus. We had a party this last weekend.  I know, shock and awe, What? The Yargers, Party? but truly we did.  My son Dan graduated from High School a few weeks ago, and it was our turn to do the send off with 140 of our closest friends.  We did it in true Yarger style.  The first pic is my niece Kelsey, whom I stole all these pictures from, because we were too busy running a party to take them.  Thanks Kels!!! 

Card box, and cake gift from my sister, it's made of towels and really cool.

Dan's Eagle Project Board

Another Board, my niece Elizabeth put together for us.

The planning for the party started about 8 months ago, and we actually had 2 "practice" parties to make sure this one went smoothly. I learned how to cook Texas Beef Brisket for it, as Dan and I wanted something different at the party, and that's not a piece of meat you just get right the first time.  We cooked and carved 7 Briskets weighing a total of 75 lbs and ran out after 11 pm (the party started at 3 pm)  We served them on fresh tortillas, and crusty Pain de Champagne Rolls from Wegmans, and with sauce from the Dinosaur BBQ.  We bought 12 cases of beer and wine coolers, and had tubs of pop and water too.  We made 35 lbs of Potato Salad, did 30 plus lbs of Hash Browns on the grill, and a very creative homemade fruit salad.  My girlfriend Stretch did a big broccoli salad for us, Char's sister did their famous baked bean dish, and we grabbed two cakes from Bagels and Cakes in Geneva.   A special thanks to Jon Murphy and his girlfriend Molly for all the cleaning, running, and preparing for the party that they did.  Part of throwing a good party is letting go of some things, and taking some of the many offers of help that come your way, so we did.  No offense intended to those offers we didn't take, we'll catch you for the next one.

Ace stoking and me flipping the hash browns

Is it safe to go back in the fruit salad yet? 

What the brisket looked like

Brother Ace making fresh tortillas

Seasoning the Hash Browns

We had both Sharks and Whales at the party

  The next part of throwing a great party is whom to invite.  Dan has a lot of good friends and he learned that from us.  Throw that in with some great neighbors, close families on both sides, and the assorted others, and you have all the mixin's for a great crowd.  We put everyone under a tent in the yard that we rented from our friend Randy Weigert.  I can't remember what he calls his party rental business, cuz I just call it "Call Randy and he'll do it for you, really reasonable, and have a beer ready for him"  I'm pretty sure that is not the name of the business, it would look ridiculous on a card, but if you need tents or a dance floor, or tables and chairs, let me know and I'll give you his number. 

Char and her best buddy, the yet unnamed sister.

Some of my favorite Bros in Law, in front of the Garaj-Mahal

Our new neighbors playing Can Jam with the volleyball net in the background

Crowd shot under the tent, early on in the party.

My sister Hummingbird, and another. She broke her toe later, but she's having fun here.

Molly and a family friend, guess which one is the Yarger? Hint: We love food.

A rare shot of my sister Peppermint and her sister Meter Maid

Another tent shot with all the cars in the background

My unnamed camera hog sister, with "don't even ask what's on her face"and why are they pointing and laughing at her?

So that was the crowd, there's not a lot of pictures of Char's family here, as my side took these pictures and she said she was nervous about "creeping" on people, but they were all there, all night, and it wouldn't have been the same without them.  We have great families and friends.  They spontaneously would help on the grill (Thanks Rob Carey), clean up the tables (Thanks Des and all), break down the tables and chairs (Thanks Donn, Rich and Frank), refill the beer (Thanks Jay and Jim), Drink the beer (Thanks Jim K.) and do anything else that was asked or even not asked of them.  It's nice to be able to count on so many people.  I'm going to close this blog by talking about the entertainment.  At most Yarger parties, the Yargers are the entertainment, but in this case, we did hire a band.  A big shout out to Brent Turetsky and his band " A Little Less Than Lonely"  They played on the upper deck of the Garaj-Mahal (yes it has a balcony, don't be haters, just make your own).  They played from 6 til 11 when I finally made the crowd stop asking for more songs. They rocked the house with tunes from Sublime, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Buffet, and a lot of others.  If there is a type of music they couldn't play, I don't know it.  They even let Nolan jam with them and Molly sing a few tunes.  They were a last minute hire, and suggested by Paul Chapman, but we more than got our money's worth.  There were over 50 guests still at the party at midnight, and the last ones went home around 1:30.  I think we gave Dan a nice send off, Yarger Style.

A couple of the members of "A Little Less than Lonely" Matt left and Joe front

Nolan jammin with the band, he did bongos and then drums

Here's to you son, Congratulations !