One Big Party
“It’s a party to celebrate Alan’s discharge from the Marines” That’s how I sold it to my parents. That would sell my father on the idea.
To my friend’s I sold it as “I want this party to be so big, when the police come I don’t want them to find the owners of the house.”
We had our issues with police showing up at other ‘gatherings’. George inviting the female officer into Denver’s house because “she was cute.” Jean and Cathy bringing the cops back to Jay’s house because when questioned what they had in their hand while going for a walk Jean replied “Zima. A unique beverage.” While a relatively unknown beverage at the time, the officer knew underage drinking when he saw it. This time we were just expecting it. At first it was just going to be Jay’s band playing in the backyard. Then when I suggested my younger brother’s band play as well, we had my parents sold. Within days we had 4 bands scheduled to play. Embarrassing Rex would open at 3PM. Followed by my brother’s band, Wet Bread. We would have a brief comedy interlude “half-time show”. Then Rich’s band, Hyperion, would play. Finally, Jay and his cousin Dennis’ band, Clocktower, would close out the night with the instructions play the rest of the night.
This party became known as “Kerrypalooza” against my will. I wanted no name attached to the inevitable police report. The night before, my brothers built a stage facing out toward the rest of the yard. The party began around 12:30 or so. Everyone wanted to ‘do a shot’ with Alan to celebrate his return from the Marines. Denver brought ’Fighting Cock’ to the party. It’s like 150 proof alcohol and tastes terrible. We were all to do a group round. We were each handed a shot and when everyone got one We started the toast, but Alan had drank his. As a punishment, George made him do a double shot. Alan done by the time the first band came on. He sat on a chair holding his head for a few hours before, as my father put it, “He pinballed his way up to the front of the house” He went home, took a shower changed and was back good to go. It wasn’t a total loss for him. Jill, one of Kelly’s friends showed a particular interest in him.
The party looked like a mini-Woodstock. Everybody and anybody had been invited to the event. Dena stopped by my job one day and I told her about it so she came and brought her new boyfriend. It was a guy named Mark who looked like the leader of the Muppet’s band, only blonde, short and stocky. Even the legendary "Melman" came out of wherever he comes from and brought an entourage of friends. At one point during the evening, Don’s sister came to me and told me we had to call the police because she locked her keys in her car. I was in shock. “Are you serious?!? You want me to call the cops and tell them to come here?” I told her I couldn’t do that, but she called anyway. Thankfully, she called 911 and they scolded her and told her to call a locksmith. In her defense, she wsn’t thinking clear headed. She was dating Denver before Denver started dating Kelly and seeing the two of them together was too much for her to handle. The only person who didn’t show up was the one person I really wanted to impress and that was Jen. She had to work and she worked a lot. I believe she was working three jobs by this point.
In the middle of the show, Sean and Jay did a comedy routine that was hysterical. I don’t know if it would have been more funny or less funny had Sean not been so drunk
Clocktower closed out dressed up in full KISS makeup and played until 11:30PM. When I, myself, went to 7-11 on the last beer run, they were out of all alcohol except Zima.
Alan, as bad as he was, was back at my house early the next morning to help clean up. There was about $34.00 in can deposits from that party, which is pretty scary as most of my friends only drank hard liquor at the time.
Overall, a great way to start what we all hoped would be a great summer!