Parade Day & St. Patrick's Day - March 16/17, 2008
Parade Day - It’s been a long, cold winter and it was obvious people needed to get out of the house. Record crowds turned out on Sunday, March 16th for the 50th Annual St. Patrick's Parade in Detroit. The weather allowed everyone to get out and celebrate their Irish heritage. Then back to the Friendly Sons for dancing, great entertainment and food. St. Patrick’s Day - The celebrating continued at the club on St. Patrick’s Day where members, family and friends started the day with a Mass, then entertainment and dancing all day and into the night. The lucky winner of the 50/50 raffle was Donovan Frank – Congratulations!
A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers who made the two events so successful!
Pub Trivia Winners - Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
Fielding 126 questions in five categories ranging from Broadway musicals to missing parts of three-person names (ie: Frank Lloyd _____, and Light Horse Harry _____), identifying a round of well-known persons' pictures, supplying names of also-known-as persons, figuring out clues for variations of the name Samuel, Sam, or Sammy (i.e.:One-eyed, African-American, Jewish entertainer), and a potpourri of geography, history, and you-name-it, the team of Pat Mack, Erin
Krangel, Megan Welsh and Brad Yonemura had 102 correct answers in the Friendly Sons pub trivia on Sunday, March 3.
The team of Julie and John Sullivan, Shirley Sullivan, Joan Carey Smalley and Sylvia finished second with ninety-three points, one point ahead of Sarah Gagnon, Katie Lau, Kathryn Nelson, Jerry Flemming, and Anita Gilbert.
Pete and Mary Bungart, Colleen Kish, Dorothy Chase, and Angie Kinner finished in fourth place.
The first-place team won a prize of $65.00; the second-place team shared $30.00.
Marie and Bill Gagnon wrote and presented the afternoon of pub trivia.
Mary Bungart remarked that the questions left everybody with a feeling of dignity, as only eighteen poins separated the first and fourth-place teams. Nine points separated the second, third, and fourth-place groups.
Pre-St. Patrick's Day Warm-Up & Friendly Sons Fundraiser - Sunday, February 17th 2008
The Pre-St. Patrick's Day Warm-up & Fundraiser was held at the club on Sunday Feb. 17. Those who braved the blustery weather enjoyed a fine day of music, Irish dancing, and good food and drink. We thank those who helped make the day a success. Some of our members arrived and started breaking up the ice at the entrances to make it safe for all. We would like to thank the bartenders, the parking lot attendants, the raffle ticket sellers, the door persons, the clean-up crew and the spontaneous Wee Shoppe salespersons. Thanks go out to the members who donated the great door prizes. Thank you to the musicians who generously gave their time...Jim Buckingham and his band members, Rachael Taylor, Odd Enough and The Diggers. Special thanks go out to the Heinzman dancers for braving the weather to perform for us. Let's not forget a huge thank you to Agnes Gowdy for her delicious Cottage Pie...it was a real crowd pleaser! Thanks to Trevor for being such a great help in the kitchen!
John L. & Julie Sullivan
Superbowl - Sunday, February 3, 2008
The Friendly Sons had a super Super Bowl Sunday, with two big screen TV’s, one in the pub and one in the hall. Dan Conlin cooked up a fitting feast for the football fans, including super sub sandwiches, snacks and the main course of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, and corned beef sandwiches. Unfortunately for the Patriots and their University of Michigan Irish boy quarterback, Tom Brady, their season came to an imperfect end as they fell to the mighty New York football Giants in an unexpectedly low-scoring, defense-dominated game. All in all, a great game, “the craic was ninety”, excellent food and drink and the camaraderie of the Friendly Sons made for another Super Sunday at the ould club.
Christmas Party & Show
December 2007
Those attending this year's Diggers Christmas party had quite a treat. This year's surprise guests were Jose Feliciano (Len Wallace), Johnny Cash (John L. Sullivan), June Carter Cash (Julie Sullivan), Billy Stanley, (Bill Misiuk-Johnny Cash's life long sidekick), Ebenezer Cash (Vince O'Shee), Tiny Tim Cash (Eugene Gunnery), Santa (Bill Gagnon) and Mrs.Claus (Marie Gagnon).
Johnny opened the show with a couple of his greatest hits...followed by Jose and his accordian...yes accordion (he thought it was a guitar but Johnny set him straight). Jose sang the perenial favorite, Feliz Navidad and the gang then performed an hilarious skit. Ebenezer sang the Patriot Song and Tiny Tim cracked up the audience with 'mother-in-law jokes'. June Carter Cash made her Friendly Sons singing debut joining her husband in two songs.."Daddy Sang Bass" and "Jackson".
Santa and Mrs. Claus handed out gifts to all the good...and not so good...boys and girls. The evening ended with the members singing their rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
Mary Jo Mack won the 50/50 draw along with several members winning raffle prizes.
The club would like to thank all those involved in the party and show. Thank you to the members who donated raffle prizes, Suzanne O'Haire for the delicious food, Joe and Mary Ochab and Nora Jones for their help in the kitchen, Colleen Kish and Dorothy Chase for bartending, Brent Kish for guarding the parking lot, John L. for writing the script and John, Len, Bill, Julie, Vince and Eugene for their performances. Special thanks to Santa and Mrs. Claus...aka Bill and Marie Gagnon. Thanks go out to Sharon Seilef and Dan Mack as well for video-taping the skit.
Hallowe'en Party
October 2007
The Annual Friendly Sons Hallowe'en Party was held on Friday, October 26th. Although a small turnout, everyone had a great time. Half the crowd got into the spirit by dressing up in costume...and there were some great ones this year! Bill and Sue Misiuk won a prize for Scariest Costume, Dan Mack won for Funniest Costume....I think he was rather dashing!....and the Snakes on a Plane couple won the most Original costume prize. Odd Enough entertained the group and Suzanne served up great Sloppy Joes...yum!
Half-Way to St. Patrick's Day Celebration
September 2007
The Friendly Sons had a most enjoyable and well attended Half-Way to St. Patrick's Celebration on Saturday, September 15th at the club. The Diggers and the Heinzman Dancers entertained. Excellent corned beef sandwiches and soda bread were served and of course, plenty of cold drinks. "The craic was 90".
The party was a huge success due to the help of our members. The Club would like to thank: Colleen Kish, Suzanne O'Haire, Mary Ochab, Nora Martin, Louie and Louise DeSanctis, Bruce and Don - The Corned Beef Kings, Dorothy Chawe, Julia Sullivan, Maureen Decker, Peggy Ciaramitaro, Brent Kish, Mike Kish, The Diggers, The Heinzman Dancers, Bob McGuire, Dan Mack, "Whiteway" for the use of their parking lot and president, Jack Tierney.
By this list of volunteers you can see how much work it takes to run an event like this....BUT, these people will tell you Volunteering is fun and rewarding. Contact any of the officers to sign up for the next event.
Raffle Winners:
One night stay and breakfast at an upscale hotel - Kathy Hunt
$100 Gift Certificate for Paul's Chop House - Bill and Marie Gagnon
Two tickets to the Thanksgiving Day Lions Game - Maureen and Matt Decker
Annual Macomb Picnic
August 2007
The East Side Irish Picnic, held on Sunday August 26, at the Dodge Park recreation grounds in Sterling Heights, was a great success. Mother Nature served up a beautiful day after a week of rain and thunderstorms. Approximately 75 guests attended during the course of the day. They came from the east and west sides of the greater Detroit area, from the country to the north, Canada (John and Julia Sullivan), and we even had one guest (Roger McCarville's brother-in-law) from as far away as the east coast. It was nice to see appearances of Jim Gallagher and Dan Mullan, both are recovering from recent health setbacks.
One of the highlights of the day was from retiree Fr. McGoldrick, who entertained us by playing jigs on the mouth organ, singing Irish Songs, and recounting some funny anecdotes and jokes. Our thanks go to Mike and Catherine Clyne for bringing him to our event.
Other thanks go out to the following people who gave of themselves to make this party a success - special thanks to Colleen Kish for all the pre-planning and purchasing of food, beverages and more, and transporting all those items to the park - Robert & Lisa Gowdy, Mike Coffey and Agnes Gowdy for being at the park early to set up the tables and running errands to pick up last minutes items - Kathy Hunt for bringing last minute items - special thanks to Anne Marie and Kurt Kasperowicz for toiling over hot grills all day long cooking hot dogs and hamburgers - Jim Galloway for donating the corn on the cob - Tim and Susan Tepatti for bringing their equipment and cooking the corn - Joe Lessnau for bringing and hanging his Notre Dame flag marking our picnic location - Dan and Mary Jo Mack for loaning us their huge cooler to keep the beverages cold - Jeff Galloway for bring his 'bean bag' or 'baggo' game, which was a great game enjoyed by both adults and kids - Agnes Gowdy for creating and donating the copying of the picnic flyer - Julie Sullivan for communicating the event via emails and the Friendly Sons web page - Bill Gagnon for securing the permit from the city of Sterling Heights for our picnic - not forgetting all the people who brought food and beverages to share - and last but not least all those, and you know who you are, who stayed to the end to help with the clean-up of the area after a wonderful party.
Paul Gowdy
Chairman Picnic Committee
Parade Day & St. Patrick's Day
March 2007
Mother Nature cooperated on Parade Day with a beautiful, warm and sunny day. The crowd was huge with both sides of the street lined with people dressed in green and ready for the events to follow. After the parade people gathered at the Friendly Sons for fun, great food and drink, music and dance. The crowd was entertained by Irish dancers and The Diggers.
A big thank you goes out to Nora Martin, Doris McCarville, Ann Wall and Noreen Noughton for making and donating the delicious soda bread. Special thanks to the kitchen staff, Rorie Grant and Sue Babich for all the work of preparing and serving the food and to all the volunteers.
A special thank you goes out to Tom and Laura (nee O'Shee) Marchin for the use of their vehicle in the parade.
St. Patrick's Day......it began as it always does, with a familiar face behind the pulpit. Fr. TJ celebrated the annual St. Patrick's Day mass at the Friendly Sons. After mass the fanfare began with music, food and drink. The hall was at capacity (nice to see). It was bittersweet to see all these proud Irish people who only seem to make it up to the hall once a year. Guinness was flowing and corned beef sandwiches were plentiful. Colin Paige and Fiddle n' Friends filled the air with music and as well as dancing by two schools, the Heinzman and O'Hare, how fortunate were we to have both of these talented groups of youngsters grace us with their presence. All and all it was a great day for the Irish and The Friendly Sons. Remember the fun you had on the 17th does not have to be a yearly event. Get involved.....this is your Irish club too!
The Friendly Sons would like to thank all the members who gave their time to make these events possible. We would like to thank the hall decorators, organizers, clean up crew, bartenders, parking lot guards and kitchen staff for a great job!
Oldies Rock 'n Roll Party
The month of March ended with a bang...........John L. Sullivan and Bill Misiuk along with Colin Paige formed a Rock 'n Roll band a year ago. They're called Johnny and The Fenders and they hosted an oldies party at the club Friday, March 30th.
People came dressed in the attire of the '50s's and were ready for fun.......and fun was had by all. It didn't take much for people to get out on the floor for the twist contest. Jerry Fleming and Mary Jane Sullivan won cash prizes for the best male and female twisters. The twist judges were Kathy Hunt, Bill Khun and Jerry Stewart. The Champ Twisters Jerry and Mary Jane took to the dance floor for another dance...they entertained the crowd with a very energetic twist ending with Jerry on the floor in exhaustion....but with a smile on his face along with smiles and laughter from the audience.
Bill Gagnon took the prize for best male costume with a flash of a bare leg and argyle socks. Mary ( a friend of John. L.'s mother) won for best female costume with her original be-bopper skirt and sweater.
Getting people on the floor for the Hoola Hoop contest was a bit more diffiicult, but with a little bit of urging, some begging and a whole lot of dragging, we managed to get six people to participate. While hoola hoopers pooped out one by one, Mary refused to give up and for the second time of the night, won a prize.....best Hoola Hooper. Although in my opinion everyone was a winner just for attempting it!!
Johnny and The Fenders put on a great show with songs of the '50's and '60's. The audience was surprised with the variety of music the lads performed. Comments like..."wow, they're amazing"...." I had no idea they were so versatile"...."this should be a yearly event"...."they have no idea how good they are"....were heard all through the room.