MUCH MORE to come boys and girls! There will be a Three Kings gallery page soon, but here's a little to get started! What a blast!

June 5, 2005

The party is over - but no crying here. I'm still riding high from it. What a blast. I think we had around 250 people all together (not at once).

The celebration had a few functions:

• Birthday Party - 50th for Pat, Stan and Mark

• Live Musical Event- several acts - pics and bios of all performing will be posted "shortly" (i.e. I don't have all pics yet)

• Benefit - we raised $933 for 3 Charities / Non-Profit organizations ($311 each). (Only one has been distributed, the other 2 this week)

• Mostly, just a great excuse to all get together and have fun.

The later point concerned me a bit. Remember the Sienfeld episode where George fretted about "world's collide"? His girlfriend wanted to hang out with George and his friends at the coffeeshop, and he was against it. Here's some text:

George: You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world then George Costanza as you know him ceases to exist. You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George. That's the George you know, the George you grew up with… Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George.
Jerry: I love that George.
George: Me too, and he's dying. If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand!

Well, we had several "worlds" at this party. Old friends, some we haven't seen in many years, newer friends, friends of friends, some co-workers, relatives... but we had fun. Even people who hardly knew anyone there said how much they enjoyed it. There was just that kind of magic feeling in the air. The food the Golden Rail put out was fantastic. We had 2 cakes, the other picture later. And the music was just awesome! King Mark said to me that the 3 Kings brought the people, but the musicians kept them there. From about 7pm to 11:45, we had a pretty full house. I had a feeling this would be good as soon as Stan said he'd come from Houston for it. Then brother Mark Daley said he'd come from Georgia. And I knew we were on to something. My brother John first suggested I do my 50^th with Mark McCartney and cousin Stan. Mark then reminded me we were the 3 kings, and voila, we had our theme. But again, that was just the excuse to get together. Mark M's brother Bob came in from Buffalo too. Brian Butler (Golden Rail owner) was very supportive from our first talk. Why? We didn't know him that well, but he sensed it would be big and fun. I wish I could explain why it all worked, and why so many people sensed it would. But somehow, we knew.

Attempt at stitching 2 pics together above - King Stan and his brother Mickey are unbeatable according to their mom. Cousin Danny and my brother Mark take them on.

'Nuther pic, King Pat (me) with my nieces Kate and Kelly. Their Dad and Mom (Chris and Nancy) were two of the pioneer owners of the Golden Rail in 1977. K&K were just a gleam in Daddy's eye back then. I was so honored to have them sing. It's been a few years since we did this together, but they pulled it off and sounded beautiful.

Lots more pics to follow on the next page - with less talk from me! But thank you thank you to all who came, and even to all you who wanted to. We won't wait 50 years to celebrate somethign again.

Next page to be posted next week after I get more pictures.

King Pat.