40th Anniversary Words
Here is the transcript of the emotional 40th anniversary speech!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the party. I'd like to take a couple of minutes to say a few words.
Celebrating forty years is incredible, and it’s definitely a great reason to throw a party. It’s hard to believe we've reached this milestone. Half the people here weren’t even born 40 years ago!
Our anniversary is actually tomorrow June 9th, so we have a few more hours. Let me share a few things about June 9, 1984, that you might not know:
- It was literally 100 degrees that day
- My brother Dan, our friend Rick Reddington, and I played five games of pickup basketball at Tamaquas Park in Westfield that morning. This started a family tradition of pre-wedding basketball games, which continued with Dan and Pat’s wedding in Florida in 1992, Maryellen and Dan’s wedding also in 1992, and Chuck and Coleen’s wedding ten years ago in New Hope, PA (where the guys in their 50s won)
- I got dressed in my black tuxedo in my parents' un-air-conditioned house (but they did have an attic fan!)
- June 9, 1984, was my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and they made it to 71 years
- June 9, 1984 was also my parents' 28th wedding anniversary
- We got married at Our Lady of Peace in New Providence. Donna was about 10 minutes late, which surprised me because she was 4 hours early to the party today
- The reception was held at Sulfur Springs on Springfield Ave in Berkeley Heights, which is now a vacant lot
- We had over 200 attendees (and only one no-show)
- We went to St. Thomas the next day for our honeymoon after opening gifts all night including a musical card that really freaked us out!
My best man, my brother Dan, also had an eventful day:
- During his toast, he joked about Donna already adding her name to my checking account.
- He included an Italian phrase in his toast, thinking Donna’s family spoke Italian (they don’t)
- Back then, photographers would take a picture of each table. Dan went table by table with the photographer to include himself in every table picture. Although they were great pictures, we chose not to purchase any of them
- Dan entertained everyone with some breakdancing (for you young people that was an 80s urban thing). It was actually a football drill called Monkey Rolls. It cleared the dance floor but was still entertaining
- Finally, Dan was cut off by the bartenders at the reception, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to drink
To borrow a line from Lou Gehrig from 85 years ago, “ Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
Forty years later, I still have:
- My lovely wife Donna. Beautiful inside and out.
- Two special sons, Chuck and Joe. I’m very proud of them both
- Two wonderful daughters-in-law, Coleen and Amanda.
- Three perfect grandchildren, Charlie, Maeve, and Barrett.
- A magnificent extended family.
- And a fantastic group of friends.
Thank you all for coming today, and let’s all make a commitment to have more parties in the future!