December 25, 1998: Christmas and New Years
	October 31 - November 2, 1998: My Sister Judy Visits Dallas
	Return to the Index for 1998

This will be a short page, because all I have to do is to show the pictures that Fred and I took at my 52nd birthday gathering that Fred and I had at my house this evening.

The Group at the Party

This year was a fairly large gathering, and I have put at left one of the group shots that we took to record the occasion. I'll try to identify eveyone for you, beginning with Fred at left. Next were Keith and Hank, good friends of Ron and Chris who are standing beside them.

Next, in the front row, is my Mom, and our friend, Mike Racke, is behind her. Next to my Mom is Lynne Richardson, and above her, in the top row, is our friend (and Lowery's), Ron Drew. Back down in the front row, Prudence Lucas is next to Lynne, and, in the back row with the striped shirt, that's me. Standing next to Mike in the middle row is a friend of Lowery's named Joe, if I recall correctly. We only met him this one time. To the right of Joe in the picture is Lowery, of course, and in the back row above him is our friend Brad.

Finally, in the front row, Prudence's sister Nancy is to the right of her in the picture, and, at the far right, is Prudence's friend Ron Ruckman. (Yes, in our small group there are four men named "Ron", and this can sometimes be confusing.) There was one more person at the party- our friend Barbara, who had to leave before this picture was taken.

Realizing that we had left out one of the attendees, we did another "take" of this group picture. Take a look at that picture here and, knowing that everyone in the picture at left appears again, see if you can spot the additional guest. (I'll tell you who he is at the bottom of this page.

I had dinner for everyone; we did two kinds of meatballs- spaghetti and meatballs and Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes. You can see that there were hors d'oeuvres as well, and of course cake for dessert.

During the evening, Fred and I took some additional pictures that you might want to see. One was a shot of Prudence Lucas and Ron Ruckman. You have seen them before in this photo album and, as things turned out, if you are going through this album chronologically, I can tell you that they will appear more frequently that just about anyone save for Fred and myself. This will be (I can tell you now having been working backward in the album, rather than forward) partially because they will marry next year but more because they will move to San Antonio to open a bed and breakfast. Fred and I will go there to see them frequently, and I will eventually create an Internet site for their business. But all that is in the future.

Of all the pictures we took this evening, I want to feature two of them prominently. This is because some of the people who attended this party were, not with us for very long after the party was held.

Nancy, Ron Drew, and Mike Racke (holding Chip) Mike died on September 11, 2001 Chip had to be put to sleep in early 2005

My Mother, Myself, Lowery Evans and Ron Drew My Mother died at age 97 in 2008 Lowery passed away in November, 2000

You've seen all the attendees in the group picture at the top of this page, and seen some of them again in the two pictures just above. There are four more candid shots to include here; click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

Working backward in this photo album has been, and continues to be, an interesting if somewhat difficult task. It is tough to resist making observations such as the ones on this page- observations that rely on knowledge of what happened subsequently. Sometimes these group gatherings make this very hard to do, as I see pictures of people (and animals) who are no longer around. I hope you'll forgive those instances when I can't resist doing so.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 25, 1998: Christmas and New Years
	October 31 - November 2, 1998: My Sister Judy Visits Dallas
	Return to the Index for 1998