I
have been holding off on blogging because I wanted to post about Bernie’s roast
with a link to the video and pictures of all the roasters. I give up.
We are missing a wire to the video camera required to hook it up to the
computer. I am sure it is in my house
somewhere. I tried to get a replacement
at Radio Shack and it was a no-go. They
told me to contact Panasonic which I just haven’t had time to do. The other issue is that the video isn’t
wouldn’t exactly carry a PG rating and I don’t want to offend anyone. If I ever get it up on Youtube, I might just
email it to the people that I know would be interested. Also, I’ve got lots of pictures of roasters, but
sadly none of my Dad since he was the unofficial/official photographer.
I
obviously knew Bernie’s 40th birthday was approaching. I asked him numerous times what he wanted to
do and didn’t get much of a response. A
few weeks before his birthday, I made an executive decision and booked a trip to New Orleans for
the fall, a trip to which we are very much looking forward. About 10 days before his birthday, we
attended his buddy Chris’ 40th birthday bash. It was that night, after a few beers that
Bernie said he wanted, not a party, but a roast. There was no way on earth I was going to be
able to put that together in 10 days. I
at least figured out the details so that I could give him the invitation on his
birthday. This was the invitation:
Since
he knew about the party, we kept the roasters top secret. Bernie was good about this until a week
before the party. Not knowing was
killing him and he kept pestering Nick and I for the information. As far as I know the only person that got
leaked was his brother, Gary; and I think that leak was by Gary himself.
I browsed through Pinterest to find the perfect cake. When I found it, I knew there was no way I could make it myself. Our friend Debbi graciously agreed to bake the cake (she also made our wedding cake and many other cakes for important events). Here is a picture of the very yummy cake:
Jeremy
worked with Bernie in his early days at Nabisco (around the time Nick was
born). Jeremy was the host of the roast.
He did a fantastic job as I knew he would. I had him in mind from the
very beginning. When I asked him, he
said “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.” My husband hates having his picture
taken. He tries to ruin my pictures by
sticking his middle finger up in a lot of them.
I have so many of these pictures that I think Bernie may have to tell
his grandchildren that he had some sort of disorder that made him do this. Jeremy took a bunch of these pictures and
made a slide show, i.e. children’s book entitled, the “Meet Bernie Edwards.” Whether Bernie is sad, happy,
mad, etc., there is a middle finger picture for every occasion. Jeremy says there are other books in the
series, but I don’t want to give too much away in case you actually do get to
see the video.
Bernie
is very sensitive about his hair. So
much so, I really tried to get our hairdresser to roast him. Unfortunately she was not available. Gary was the next roaster and had the most
access to younger pictures of Bernie.
Gary did a slide show of the phases of Bernie’s hair showing how it had
changed over the years. For a long time,
Bernie cut his own hair (and sometimes not very well). Gary even had a picture of when Bernie tried
to cut Gary’s hair. It was so funny to
see all those pictures, and I’m so thankful that we have Sue to cut his hair
now.
Kellee was next on the list. She talked about how Bernie often wears his
emotions on his sleeve and how she could tell the next morning whether he had
won or lost a tennis match the night before.
Knowing he is a die hard Yankees fan, he would often dress our children
in Yankee outfits only to find Red Sox patches over the logos when Bernie
picked them up at the end of the day. She wore Bernie’s Reggie Jackson Jersey
(favorite player, favorite jersey), over a Red Sox shirt. Bernie was beside himself when she took it
off and stepped on it. I think she was
the surprise presenter, Bernie wasn’t expecting her to roast him.
Chris
was the next roaster. He went to high
school with Bernie and Bernie introduced Chris to his wife, Jacinta. Chris had a lot of great stories. One of them was when he was on his first date
with Jacinta and Bernie had come along.
Chris stopped to get gas and wanted to impress Jacinta, so he pulled the
dipstick out of the car to check the oil.
After he did so, he couldn’t remember where to put it back. Neither could Bernie. Jacinta was the only one who could figure it
out. Hold this thought for a blog post
coming soon…
My Dad
went next. The only problem is that my
Dad didn’t realize he was on the list. I
thought we had adequately communicated over text message, but I guess not. Nonetheless, my Dad did a great job. He recounted the story of how Bernie is known
as “the Drunk Guy” in Lockport, NY. Once
again, I don’t want to give away too much in case you get to see the video.
Nick
was the last official roaster. He had
been nervous and had settled on toasting, rather than roasting his dad. That
was until Bernie wouldn’t stop bugging him about what he was going to say. Nick wrote his speech the night before and
would run parts of it by me. Everytime I
gave him an idea of what to write, Nick would come up with five other things. Nick knows more about us than probably anyone
else. He did a great job. He really stole the show.
After
Nick, I toasted Bernie and then many people got up and took the opportunity to
get a roast or a toast in: my mom, Carolyn, Jason, Bridgette, Arleen and Reggie to
name a few. Then Bernie got to give his rebuttal.
I think everyone at the party had a really good time. The wait staff said it was the best party they had ever worked. A few times I saw the bar tender crying he was laughing so hard. You know it was a good roast if people who didn’t know Bernie thought it was hilarious. I have to give a shout out Margaritas in Mystic. We moved a lot of furniture, we hung a tablecloth from the bar to use as a projection screen, the food was very good and they were very easy to work with. If you are ever throwing a party, you should consider Margaritas. They were very accommodating!
I think everyone at the party had a really good time. The wait staff said it was the best party they had ever worked. A few times I saw the bar tender crying he was laughing so hard. You know it was a good roast if people who didn’t know Bernie thought it was hilarious. I have to give a shout out Margaritas in Mystic. We moved a lot of furniture, we hung a tablecloth from the bar to use as a projection screen, the food was very good and they were very easy to work with. If you are ever throwing a party, you should consider Margaritas. They were very accommodating!
I was
blown away by the amount of time that people spent preparing for the
roast. Every presentation was awesome.
It was also really good to see people that we haven’t connected with in a long
time. It is so easy to lose touch when
there is so much going on. We are truly blessed by the friends and family who
are part of our lives.
Thank
you to everyone who came, for all the presentations, for all of the generous
gifts, to Debbi for making the cake, to my Dad and Arleen for lugging the PA
system from Buffalo and for all your help setting up, to Chris for letting us
borrow the projector, and to Adam and Jen (parents of Jack’s friend, Caroline)
for taking such great care of Jack and Vivian during the party. I definitely
could not have pulled it off without all of you.
"A friend is one who knows you
and loves you just the same."
- Elbert Hubbard
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