Earth to Bill: The Dusty Pre-4th Party

For the 28th year in a row, my brother, Bryan, has hosted his annual "Pre-Fourth of July" party at his house in Somers, CT. He calls it the "pre-4th" because it is always held on the weekend prior to any 4th of July weekend that comes along, thus helping folks to avoid the usual holiday planning conflicts.

This year, the weather was perfect - not too hot, and sunny all day long. The food was a-plenty and the beer flowed freely (although responsibly!). And for the 28th year going, we were entertained by the talented Berry Brothers Band, led by brothers Chris and Kevin Berry - two long, long, long, longtime friends of Bryan's.

I took a bunch of photographs of the event (only a select few of which are shown in this post), and I also got some video, which I divided into two parts. The first video starts with short clip of my sister-in-law Lydia, who sang a Janis Ian song in tribute to my sister Patty, who passed away this past January after a long battle with cancer. Lydia did a fine job, and I'm real proud of her performance. (NOTE: To any relatives who would like a full version of Lydia's song to Patty, e-mail me and I'll e-mail it over to you.) Also, I learned just how small a world we live in when Bryan's friend, Rick Martinez walked up to me and mentioned that he went to high school with none other than Tommy Devine. In fact, Rick says that it was he who first introduced Tommy to the writings of author Ayn Rand. Is that true, Tommy?

Rick says "Hi" to Tommy toward the end of the first video.

In the second clip, I go hunting around for folks to howl for me. I nick-named this video "The Howling" video.

Unfortunately, my sister Debbie and her family showed up after my camcorder had ran out of battery life (and sharp thinker that I am, I didn't think to bring the charger cord with me). But I did get a couple of photographs of them, anyway. The video clips follow the photos, below (click on images for larger versions).

The Dusty siblings: Gerry, Deb, Bryan, and me.

Al, Bonnie, and Rick.

The Berry Brothers Band

The Republican party-goers.

My sister-n-law's parents & friends.

Did I mention there was alcohol at the party?

The Clarke family. I had just called out to my sister, Debbie, so hence the "what the heck?" expression as she turned to me. Debbie actually ended up with the lions share of the brains in the family. All I got was this cheap digital camera.