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The "It's a Wonderful Life Rally" part 2
On Christmas night, Diane and I met Gary and Janis for dinner and a movie. We got together at the Commodore Theater in Portsmouth for smoked chicken salad and fruit, ice tea and popcorn. We had not seen each other since the rally so we chatted about that before the show started. We all came away from the rally knowing that everyone who attended, including us, had a good time. Many, including Gary, learned to appreciate “It’s a Wonderful Life” more. Gary watched it again when it was aired just last week on NBC.
We talked for about our hour about our families and how our Christmas day had been.
Gary and I headed upstairs for some popcorn just as the theater lights were dimming.
We watched Saving Mr. Banks. I really enjoyed the movie. I think we all did. I like a Disney ending. Isn’t that what we all want in life…a Disney Ending?
Eight o’clock Saturday morning found me back in the meeting room along with Gary getting things ready for our full breakfast. The first thing I noticed on the way over was that the weather was starting to go south. In other words it was beginning to get cold. I didn't mind. It is Christmas time; it is supposed to be cold.
Gary started the pots of coffee while I made sure the tables were in order. Janis arrived next and Diane not far behind after taking Teddy Bear for a trot around the campground.
The caterers arrived at just after eight with lots of aluminum trays of food.
I was surprised at how much. There were cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, pork sausage links, turkey sausage patties, really flaky biscuits, and some of the best buttery grits I ever ate. There was plenty of juice and coffee of course.
By eight thirty the place was full. Everyone seemed very cheerful, and ready to get this part of the festivities going. I heard very positive comments about the previous evening.
Once again I rang a bell. As soon as I had everyone’s attention I announced that we would be eating, the Marines had arrived and once the Toys for Tots presentation was over our business meeting which included installation of our new offices would commence.
We held hands, one our men said Grace and then the line formed.
Breakfast was good. The two Marines, in their dress blues, sat with us at the host table and we chatted for awhile. Then they stood in front of the toy table, which by now was quite crowded with all kinds of toys and told us some history of the charity. They gratefully accepted the toys, packed them up and were on their way.
We cleared the breakfast item and reset the buffet tables to work as officer tables and then the meeting began.
Once the meeting was over I took the floor to announce that dinner would still be at six, happy hour at five.
I also announced that the trivia contest would be a team effort.
“The contest will be by table so I advise you to not sit by someone stupid!”
That got a laugh…one of many before this day was over.
The morning ended and every one headed out, some to go shopping (some for gifts, some for vintage clothing for some reason), some to one of the local bar-b-que spots for lunch, and some just decided to hang around in their coaches.
The four hosts decided to go vintage clothing looking as well. Diane needed a 1940s hat. I didn’t need anything.
I had my hat and along with that a brown three button suit, brown button up sweater vest, burgundy cap shoes, white French cuff shirt (with 60 year old cuff links!) and a burgundy striped tie it yourself bow tie. They all looked like they could have come from the movie wardrobe department. I tried the ensemble on a couple days before the rally. Along with the gray Stacey Adams fedora,I added some old wire rim glasses. I walked into the living room where Diane was sitting on the coach. She looked at me with a surprised expression:
“You look like my Papou.” She said.
We headed out to a place called the Old Mill shops in Weldon. There was a big flea market/consignment area there and who knows we might get lucky.
We did get lucky. I found Diane an old 1940s black pillbox hat with a big side bow and gold beads around the crown. It reminded me of the style hat a stewardess would wear on the Pan-Am flying boats of the late 1930s or early 40s. It cost 14 bucks. Best of all it fit.
“If this makes you happy, I will wear it” she said. It made me happy.
We bought a couple of other things including a really cute animated snow-man baby (it plays peek-a-boo) which I wanted to buy for Diane to add to her collection, but she said no, “I have too many of them already and we are planning to downsize.” I bought it anyway with the plan to give it away that night.
We traveled back to our coach where not much happened the rest of the day. Around three we started getting ready for the biggest event of the weekend.
I let Diane go first and gave her lots of space. She refused to wear a dress or heels because that was too much trouble while hosting this party. I think she had a legitimate point. Earlier, I bought her a forties style black and white dress which I found at Macy’s but she didn't want to keep it both financially and logistically. She is a wise lady.
Diane took her new hat and combined that with a Fuchsia suit jacket, a wide black belt and old style slacks with black round toed shoes. She finished it off with some antique Christmas marguisite jewelry. The whole effect was pretty darn good.
I couldn't tie my own tie it yourself bow tie so Diane took care of that for me and she also helped with my cuff links..
“Well now, George.” She said as she fastened a cuff and helped me with my jacket, “I think you look pretty good.”
I put on my hat, a gold pocket watch in my left pants pocket, hooked the chain to my belt and looked in the mirror
I thought she was right again.
The final touch was a large light brown leather suitcase with straps that could have been a movie prop. It was provided to me by Janis, she brought it to the rally, and it looked like the real deal. I was thrilled with it.
I looked forward to seeing what the other party goers would look like. I was hoping for some good competition. I didn't know it yet, but I was going to get just that.
I went to the back to the room first with some items to put in my suitcase which included printouts of the trivia contest, pencils and prizes for all the winners.
I made sure the room was in order, went back to the coach to help Diane carry our drinks and presents for the party.
Gary and Janis caught up with us on the way back. Gary had borrowed a black bow tie and suspenders from me. He was dressed like a bartender with a white shirt and black shirt sleeve bands. Very appropriate for Gary to be Mr. Martini for the evening.
Janis told me I looked like George Bailey. Well, that was the whole idea.
We went in, and I shed the jacket while I set the banquet table with the leftover goodies from the night before for people to snack on during happy hour.
About five fifteen our guests arrived including a very convincing Mr. Potter in his wheelchair, George in his football uniform, Carl and Dot came as a Gangster and his girl and others dressed for the forties. The best dressed contest now had a good number of candidates, I was glad to see.
The caterers brought a ton of food, all of really good. While it was being set out on the table, I pulled out my suitcase and distributed pencils and copies of the Trivia contest, all six pages of it. One went to each table. It looked like a high school final exam. The surprising thing was, everyone dug right into it, even to the point that when dinner was announced no one wanted to get in line. They all kept on working at it.
Of course everyone did finally help themselves to ham, turkey, stuffing, real mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese, green bean casserole, and peach cobbler.
During diner the black and white version of the movie played silently on the TV. I informed all that when The End came up on the screen, the contest would be over. The contestants learned that some of the answers to the quiz could be seen, if they watched close enough and could read lips. People were huddled together discussing the questions; a lot of phones were out with Google being accessed. I never said that was not allowed. The very back table was using a couple of books about the movie that were on display on the table with the village. That was cheating, but pretty smart at the same time.
I sat and chatted with Gary, Diane and Janis as they tried to answer as many of the trivia questions as they could. I was disqualified from playing, as I knew all the answers.
At times the room was so quiet with just the hum of whispers and big band music playing (not too loudly) in the background.
There was one interruption required during all this time. I needed votes for the best dressed. Once again I opened George’s suitcase and removed my pre-made ballots.
I instructed all to vote for the top two people who fit the criteria. It didn’t take long for the votes to be turned in.
My table did the tallying. Once the votes were counted first and second place were obvious. We had a tie for third. I had not voted yet so it fell to me to break the tie, which I did.
I stood up to announce that we had our winners and that Mary Bailey would be presenting the prizes.
Diane (who received a couple of votes) asked for Betty to come forward. Betty, who wheeled Mr. Potter into the room, came up front.
Diane opened the suitcase and then said to Betty:
“You have won third place and so I present to you…”
She handed Betty a sea salt grinder full of sea salt.
“Salt! So that life may always have flavor.”
There was applause.
Diane then turned to me and announced that I had won second place. She removed a long French Baguette from the case as she said.
“I give you bread that this house may never know hunger!”
There was laughter and more applause and by this time everyone had to know what the prize for first place would be.
Diane asked for Frank to roll forward.
“And to Mr. Potter I present” and then there was a chorus from all in the room as Diane lifted a bottle out of the case.
“Wine! That joy and prosperity will reign forever!”
I looked at Frank and said “Merry Christmas Mr. Potter!” in my best George voice.
There were a lot of cheers as Frank, aka Mr. Potter, rolled back to his table.
Even a warped, frustrated old man deserves first place sometimes. I didn't mean you Frank.
A few minutes later as dinner continued and folks went back to the trivia questions they had passed over, THE END appeared up on the big screen.
I rang my bell to announce the Hardest “It’s a Wonderful Life Trivia Quiz” was now over. It was time to review all the answers and determine our winners.
I quickly read the questions followed by the answers, all fifty seven of them. There were a few “I knew it, why did we change it?!” responses along with some “We should have had that one.”
The winning table had correctly answered fifty two. Mr. Potter was sitting at that table. I guess it was just his night.
I carried my suitcase to the table and before I opened it I told the room I had one more question to ask of the winners.
“What did George say when he hit the cigar lighter?”
The table answered as one:
“Wish I had a million dollars!”
“Correct! You have won and here are your prizes” and then I opened my case, pulled out an old measuring tape and threw it at Mr. Potter as I said:
“Except for you, because you don’t measure up!” That got a huge laugh.
“For the rest of you here you go”
Then I handed them all, including Mr. Potter, a chocolate bar wrapped in a million dollar bill.
I also gave one to the oldest person there. We all call her Mom and she just turned ninety.
“I think that anyone ninety years old who last night watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the very first time, unlike me who saw it for the hundred and something time, deserves a million dollars!”
Everyone agreed with that.
The rest of the night was a blast. We had our gift exchange and there was some stealing which created a lot of laughter, shouting and applause. Billy, our resident Santa made sure no one got too naughty. I had my gift stolen twice, I stole one from Mr. Potter. Why not? He owned me eight thousand dollars. I ended up with a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Crème and matching glasses. How appropriate is that?
Diane, Mary, the light of my life, took home a box containing three gorgeous electric candles.
When the last present was unwrapped, and my peek-a-boo snowman in the plain brown bag, was one of the last, the evening was officially over.
No one wanted to leave. Everyone milled about or continued to sit even while all the hosts cleaned up and prepped for the next morning’s breakfast.
I figured that was pretty good evidence that so far the rally had been a success.
Tomorrow it would be breakfast; goodbyes pack it all up and then home for Christmas.
The morning found us there early, hustling around making fresh fruit salad, ham biscuits, laying out trays of Danish and heating up leftovers from Saturday’s breakfast. Our efforts presented everyone with a good looking spread.
A lot of our people leave early on Sunday. They skip breakfast to do so. Not this time. Everyone came. They prayed, they ate, and they talked. We heard so many good comments about how much fun the last two days had been. It really did my heart good.
No one was in a big rush to see it end.
When finally Andy closed it, we had lots of people stay and help us clean up. A special thanks to Grover and Margo for helping me box up my village, they saved me a couple of hours at least.
Diane, Gary, Janis and I were the last ones to pull out of the park. We were all tired but we knew it had been worth all the work. The only thing left to do was to hug goodbye and say
“Merry Christmas!”
Now I know that this blog entry has gotten a bit long. I don’t apologize for that. The length is necessary to convey to you what I said at the beginning; I, we, wanted to make it possible for all my friends to really enjoy themselves. Many of our group had gone through some very tough times during the previous year and I believed they needed this weekend to reaffirm their faith in friends and family and something even greater than that.
We did our best to create a Disney Ending.
I wanted them to remember it, long after this rally was over.
Now I am thinking about the next one the four of us will host….
I already have a name for it.
How does the “LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES RALLY” sound?
Gramps
PS if you want to take the IAWL quiz here it is:
http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/12/most-challenging-its-wonderful-life.html
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