At Scot's birthday party: an old Chevy truck, food, kids, horseshoes, cute puppy, piñata and cake

Yes, for those of you who guessed the birthday party Margie and I attended on Saturday was for Scot Starheim, the builder of the stage called Metro Cafe and husband of chief Metro playright, actress and super-star Carmen, you were right. Scott actually celebrated his 54th birthday a couple of days before, but they waited until Satuday to hold it.

Shortly after Margie and I arrived, we noticed this early 60's vintage Chevy pickup sitting near the garage. As Scot builds and restores so many different types of machines, ranging from his newly invented super sluice box to his Corvette to the Metro Van and car that act as billboards to the coffee shop, I figured he must have rebuilt the pickup, too.

No, he told me. As a young man, Scot had worked with just such a Chevy truck doing landscaping and when he saw this one advertised in Craigslist a few years back at an excellent price, he wanted it. He immediately called the seller, who lived in Anchorage, and told him he would add $200 to his asking price if he would hold it for him for a couple of hours.

Scot then headed to the side of the highway to hitchhike, with a $100 bill in his hand. As cars came by, he waved the $100 in the air, quickly caught a ride, purchased the Chevy truck and then drove it back to Wasilla.

True, you don't see but a hint of the Chevy in the picture. Sometimes, I look at a scene and I know there is a picture in it, but am not quite sure just where the picture is or what angle I need to get at to find it. So I will start shooting "throw away frames" as I begin my search for the picture. That's what I did here, but after I shot just three or four frames Scot suddenly grew camera shy, so I never found the right angle, but had to settle for this one.

Head cook Chuck, barbecuing ribs and chicken. On another grill, there was hotdogs and veggie burgers. I had a rib, a drumstick and a hot dog I shared with Margie. All were excellent, but I liked the hot dog the best. If I had eaten it first and not last, I would have devoured the whole thing. Margie could have got her own.

Branson, friend, and toy space guns, shooting me.

Family portrait, with Carmen's parents, Tony and Eva Villasenor, at the head.

The kid - Aidan - got stuck - couldn't go anywhere. So two other kids came to push him out. They pushed and pushed and pushed, but he still couldn't go anywhere. The four wheeler did not budge, not even one inch. Finally, I gave it a yank from the front and off it went, little kids tumbling along behind it.

Men played horseshoes.

Boys played soccer.

A cute puppy made the rounds, and eventually found itself cuddled in the embrace of Carmen's cute sister, Yamily.

Yamily with their other cute sister, Theresa.

Cute Carmen with my cute wife, Margie. I should add that not only are all three Villasenor sisters cute, they are highly intelligent and talented. So is Margie.

A piñata was to be hung. Men with highly-honed mechanical and engineering skills got together to discuss how best to accomplish such a feat. It took some serious mental calculations coupled with stunning atheletic gymnastic and one-armed weight-lifting exploits, but after three tries, they got it all figured out and hung the piñata.

No sooner did they get it then Aiden, the littlest kid showed up, to see if he could break the piñata. He was tiny, so they did not make him wear a blindfold, but planned to with the bigger kids.

The second boy, Caleb, a hockey player, was just a little bigger, but did not bother to put on a blind fold and he busted the piñata right open. As candy and dollar bills rained down, all the children came running to snatch up their shares.

Scot smooched Carmen as Branson smiled politely. The cake was decorated with a photo of Scot's super sluice box, minature cone markers and large gold nuggets, which were not really gold nuggets at all.

Comments

[debby]

Barbecued chicken, a gun fight, AND a pinata? Wow~ sounds like the PERFECT party.

[Suji]

Happy Birthday!

[Mrs Gunka]

So nice to see REAL Wasillians have a wonderful day with friends and family. What a beautiful sight! Happy Birthday Scot! Thanks for sharing Bill.