A wild 80th birthday party   9-9-12

One of our clients is named PW. He is originally from Kentucky and the letters are an abbreviation for his first name and middle name...neither of which he uses. After one says the name several times, it begins to grow on you. PW had his leg badly shot up in the Korean war and has survived lung and prostate cancer. He had a triple bypass two years and six months ago. He filtered a huge quantity of both distilled and fermented beverages through his liver and kidneys until he was forty. PW also stopped supporting the tobacco industry at around that time. Needless to say, many of his relatives and long-time friends are ASTOUNDED that he has arrived at his 80th birthday in one piece. The icing on the cake is that the man looks like he is in his early sixties. He plays golf and plays/manages on three different softball teams beginning about this time of year. He still finds time to work out at our facility twice a week when he and his wife aren't cruising the planet's oceans. 
Last Saturday, the staff at Classic attended PW's 80th birthday blowout at Stoneybrook Country Club. There were only about 90 people there...a very intimate affair. The entertainer had a long white pony tail and a repertoire of songs that ranged from Neil Diamond to Johnny Cash. He was fabulous and I want to hire him for my 80th birthday. I began eating immediately by sidestepping the guest of honor and pouncing on the cheese-filled puff balls at the appetizer table. Gradually, I was able to fill my plate with an absolutely delectable mushroom goody presented in a little pastry shell. We soon discovered that the placeholder/name cards on our table were the key to getting fed. One star meant that one had requested the charbroiled pot roast dinner. No stars meant that one had requested the salmon. I had one star on my placeholder...and asked Sue to draw in a second with her pen. It worked! I received TWO dinners, the second arriving soon after the first. Then in a stroke of luck, I visited PW's table of honor and noticed that his granddaughter had not touched her pot roast! She caught me staring and graciously offered it up. I hesitated for a millisecond and then accepted, spiriting it away to my table before anyone else at PW's table noticed the dinner was available. 

Sue danced with PW, but I did not. He seemed to be holding her a little more tightly around the waist than the dance moves required, but they assured me that I was reading too much into it. The astute reader may notice a young man standing in the background of the above picture. He is wearing a short-sleeved black shirt and holding a drink. That young man is Joe, our chief assistant trainer at Classic. He finished his entire dinner. I knew he would. He is a very nice guy but for some reason a little protective whenever he and I go out to eat together.