Entertaining disasters

[tearhead]

Just wondering if anyone has a good story about a party they have hosted or attended, where disaster struck. Have you invited everyone for the wrong date, forgotten to turn on the oven, or cooked things to which guests were allergic? Did a tornado come through? Do tell!

Here's a story about a party that happened here at our home, but long before my time. The house has been in my husband's family since it was built in 1856. The party in question occurred a century later, about 1956. At that time, the neighbors all up and down the road were dairy and hog farmers with large families. Their wives worked as hard as their husbands did. There was little leisure or luxury in their lives, and they despaired of ever having anything elegant happen in the neighborhood. So that's when my mother-in-law, Barb, decided to host a tea party on the front lawn one Sunday afternoon. She sent out invitations, and made her preparations. All the neighborhood ladies and their daughters were looking forward to it. Barb set out tables and chairs from the house (because lawn chairs were not in common use in rural Wisconsin then). She made special sandwiches and cakes and arranged them carefully on the tablecloth- covered tables. Everyone arrived in her nicest dress, hat, and gloves, very excited to be entertained in such fine style. But, just as Barb began to pour the tea, disaster struck. It seems her oldest son and his friend thought this would be a fine opportunity show off their horse riding skills for the assembled ladies. Tom and his friend came galloping around the corner of the house and into the front yard, riding the farm's two Belgians at top speed. Unfortunately, the horses were spooked by unexpectedly seeing a crowd of people sitting around on the lawn, and became impossible to control. They started bucking and kicking, knocking over the tables, and scattering teacups, cookies, and guests in their wake. To add to the overall excitement, one of the horses had a bad case of gas, which became noisily apparent as he bucked and farted amongst the frightened guests. As far as I know, that was Barb's last attempt at elegant entertaining.

So...anybody have a story?

[JuneBug]

Well, kind of the opposite. We arrived at a house warming with flowers in hand, at the correct time of evening..........but a day early. Had a nice chat with our friend, who looked a little confused when he answered the door.

At a relative's wedding, the mother of the groom had just discovered that her husband had a long running affair for the better part of their marriage and of course they were both (she and her husband) at the wedding. She managed to maintain very well, considering, but there were a few frosty interactions between the two.

My outdoor wedding on the banks of the Blanco River had one interesting moment, when, as we were saying our vows, the oblivious landowner on the far side of the river decided that he had to do major chainsaw work at that very moment. The woman who was in the process of becoming my sister-in-law had the major lung power to shut him down pretty quick.

[mary and bob]

Similar wedding experience as that of Junebug. Years ago we were caretakers of a private estate belonging to a well known entertainer. His son was having his wedding on the lawn. About that time the neighboring farmer was plowing a field nearby. I had to climb over a barb wire fence to ask him to stop, which he immediately did. Then during the reception the well went dry so no water to the bathrooms. They had chartered a bus to bring guests up from NY City. The place had a long long driveway and the bus driver didn't know how to back up the bus to get out of there. A neighbor that I had never seen before came over and complained about the noise from the band, this was middle afternoon. And after all that the marriage lasted only a couple years!! Bob

[tearhead]

Wow, those are great ones.

Junebug, I'm really impressed that anyone can yell loud enough to get the attention of someone running a chainsaw! Your sister-in-law must have some lungs.

Bob, the lack of bathrooms/water issue is a scary prospect indeed! I'm guessing they hadn't arranged for portapotties. Actually, now I'm rethinking the idea that our rural abode would be a good spot for a wedding reception someday (when our daughter gets around to getting married). I figured on portapotties but hadn't thought about tractor noise. That could be kind of random! A nice day for an outdoor party could also be a nice day for cultivating. Or target practice. Or...well, you name it.

[CARS]

Does that include something that you could only laugh about after it happened? Much later??

About 30 some years ago, it was my families turn to host Christmas day's meal for my Mom's side of the family.

As a young guy, I was excited that my Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were all coming over for the day so once my parents, little brother and I were done with opening our gifts, it was time to get ready for the mob.

My brother and I were decorating like there was never going to be another celebration of any sort. Signs, candles, back ground music... you name it, we did it.

One particular piece of decoration was this ceramic log with 5 candles in it. (thinking back, it was ugly. But it was a Christmas decoration!)
I lit it and went on to other things.

Now since I was probably around 6-7 and my mom was busy, no one really realized what I lit, or even when I lit it.

About 1/2 hour before our guest were to arrive the smoke detector goes off. At first it was assumed that something spilled on a burner or mom is just burning our meal. But this smelled odd and we started looking around.

Our humidifier was on fire!!! Oh crap, get some water and put it out. OK, done.

Wouldn't you know it? That log that I set on our drum style humidifier had an open bottom. The candles burned down (because obviously I lit them 4 hours before anyone would arrive) and fell onto the plastic grates of the humidifier, burned through, and lit the drum's foam on fire! (why was it empty and off mom???)

We cleaned it up, opened some windows, and our guest slowly arrive to a story of how their kid isn't allowed to play with matches or candles for a few more years.

Every year, as we sit around someone brings it up...

[Aaron Coffee]

This happened when I was about 5, don't recall the occassion, could have been a birthday or could have just been a family get together, my older brother and cousins were playing football, someone threw it and it landed in the hotdish, which has ever since been called, "football casserole"
When I was 12, on my birthday my brother took me to a park for some reason or another(should have been suspicious when my older brother offered to take me someplace)we got home, kids all over the front yard, I walked in the house, never realizing that it was my suprise birthday party, someone finally asked me if I noticed all my friends outside.

[mechmagcn]

Since we lived in a house that had a large living room/dining room area it seemed like we always hosted family gatherings. My aunt got married there when I was around 5 years old, during the reception all of us kids were sent out to play. Well... since none of the adults were paying any attention to me I decided it was time to grab a handful of the weeping willow limbs and swing like ''Tarzan". This ended when the leaves stripped off and I landed on a gallon pickle jar full of pickle juice. A very bloody walk through the house, I think someone even fainted, a fast ride to the emergency room and 64 stitches later this little boy was whole again. Now I know why Mom never wanted us to swing on those limbs

[Kevin & Sandy]

We were going to have a big Christmas dinner at our house a few years ago, my wife and I had been cleaning and preparing for days, and cooking for hours.

About a half hour before all the family arrives, our pug starts making a terrible barking racket in our small fenced in area in our back yard. My wife took a quick glance out the window and thought she saw a large cat trying to bite our pug !!

She ran to the patio door and opened it, our pug came dashing in the house, she slid the door shut on a rabid skunk's nose, it was THAT close to coming in the house! I got the pug into the attached garage, but the whole house stunk immediately. He had been sprayed and it was strong....

My son had been bow hunting, and had his bow handy, so he quickly shot the skunk with a broadhead tipped arrow, while I tried to give the dog a tomato juice bath. I let the skunk freeze before I hauled him away.

The house and garage stunk for weeks, but we all survived it!

[tearhead]

You guys do know how to have fun!