At the age of 65, and after 32 years of service to his company, my my dad retired last month.
About two week, or so, before he retired, I had talked with one of his co-workers, Duane. Duane asked me if I had been planning to throw him a retirement party. Honestly, the thought had not crossed my mind. Duane assured me that my dad's company would throw in some money. He encouraged me to look into it.
Shortly after dad did retire, I called his company. The man I talked with said that the company would allocate $250 toward the party. That was an amount we could work with.
Dad worked in the dairy industry, and my DW is from a dairy farm, so we decided to go with an ice cream social. We ordered 3 - 3 gallon containers of ice cream ($90). Two were French vanilla, and the other was pumpkin. We reserved a pavilion at a local park ($65). The rest of the money was spent on toppings (strawberries, chocolate syrup, bananas, sprinkles, etc.), decorations, milk, ice, and tableware. We ended up spending about $290, and were happy to cover the $40 overage.
The party was yesterday. We figure about 75 people attended. We had beautiful weather in September for an outside venue. Most importantly, my dad really enjoyed himself. And, $3.87 per participant isn't bad. Let's also say that my family will have enough chocolate syrup to last us a few months!
My Dad's Retirement Party
September 17th, 2012 at 02:00 pm
September 17th, 2012 at 02:10 pm 1347887417
What a great event! We had an ice cream social when my youngest graduated kindergarten - a small soiree with a few close family members and friends. Sounds like a lovely time!! Are you in Wisconsin, dairyland?
September 17th, 2012 at 02:15 pm 1347887733
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