The Coolest Birthday Party Ever

The word “cool” is subjective; it can mean different things to different people. People use the word to refer to small things, such as rings that change color, and large things, such as 96 phonograph horns made from recycled newspaper and dryer lint mixed with shellac.

But cool is the only word I can think of describe the birthday party I attended Saturday evening.

Indeed, the entire evening, all I heard from other people was, “this is the coolest birthday party I have ever attended!”

After you read about the party, I believe you will agree with me. It was the coolest birthday party ever.

The celebration was for the 16th birthday of a young man who hates parties. He was born with cerebral palsy, autism, and has mental retardation that affects all aspects of his life, from communication to mobility.

My family has known him for eight years, and we have grown to love him and admire his courage, strength, tenacity and sense of humor.

So we were honored to be among the 20 people he invited to his party.

The cool part was that everyone in attendance was there for him. They were not there to be entertained, as happens at some parties, especially those for people with communication issues and who do not enjoy traditional activities.

We gathered at a friend’s farm where we cooked hotdogs and brats, and enjoyed cookies and pasta salad.

Then, because one of the great joys in this young mans life is hearing things break, we took turns throwing old jars, flower pots, coffee mugs, vases, plates, saucers, and other breakable items at a rock we placed on a tarp to catch the pieces.

We didn’t just throw the items. Because he also likes the story surrounding the breaking of items, such as, “I’m going to the basement to get a jar of pickles. Oh, no, I fell . . . CRASH”, we also created scenarios to go with each break.

We juggled coffee cups and then dropped them. We offered him coffee and then tripped. The four or five of us, including three teenage boys, tried to make every break unique and special.

The birthday boy sat on a chair some twenty feet away, and laughed his head off. He even took his turn throwing a cup or two at the rock, howling with laughter as it shattered into a hundred pieces.

After the breaking, we all gathered around an outdoor screen and watched a wiggles video, which is one of his favorites.

The cool part was that from beginning to end the party was about the birthday boy. No one tried to project their own agenda. No one tried to make the party look more like a traditional 16 year old birthday party. We were doing what he wanted to do. We were participating in activities totally dedicated to celebrating his life, his interests, and things that make him happy.

One of the people at the party told me that when she went to a garage sale to buy items that would be broken, the lady at the garage sale asked what she was looking for. My friend said, “oh, anything breakable.” The garage sale lady said, “oh, do you do mosaics?” “Um . . . no” said my friend, and then told her about the plan. “Oh,” said the lady, “then you should take these Nebraska coffee mugs, I don’t like them anyway.” And break them we did, to the enjoyment of everyone in attendance, and even some who didn’t attend.

So I offer the word “cool” to you as the best way to describe what we experienced Saturday.

“The coolest birthday party ever!”

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Posted by Jeremy on Sep 8 2010. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry