August 12, 2012 – Goyfest 2012 is in the books, a great turnout, lots of family, new and old friends, neighbours, inlaws and outlaws. Always held on the 2nd Saturday in August, often near or on Lisa’s birthday (August 9th) or our Anniversary (August 12th), the origins of Goyfest began in 1980 when we lived on Duthie Avenue in North Burnaby, BC. The party’s were much different then, lots of very loud music, no small children, far to much drinking and they went very late in the night, often without me to see people off. As I recall we may have even had the police attend a couple as things tended to get out of hand.
These days Goyfest is much calmer, our kids friend’s attend and they have many young children, many of us are in our fifties and sixties, add Lisa’s Mom who turns 82 in September and we have a very diverse group for sure. If the weather permits we have a small fire for marshmallows for the youngsters, we always have a Table Tennis Tournament (Goyfest International Gnip Gnop), music (103.5 FM), lots of food (this resembles an eat-a-thon), BBG dogs of all varieties, ladder ball and of course fun galore. Nowadays we pack it in about 10pm and I am usually around to say farewell to all guests.
These past years we have had a real Mexican theme with banners we have picked up over the years from both mainland Mexico and Baja. Some celebrating the Mexican Revolution others just colourful and we always have our Goyfest Banner up Lisa and the kids got me a few years ago.
I am pleased to report I won the Table Tennis Tournament and the Trophy that goes with it. Our son Ken, who won last year, was my opponent, our youngest daughter Heather and Son-In-Law Jason were runner ups (married to our oldest daughter Kirsty). They all received Tim Horton’s gift cards as prizes, I gave mine to Heather’s partner Danny as I forgot to include him in the tournament (36 players). I promised not to forget him next year.
We spent the day doing a little cleaning up and quietly celebrating our 34th Wedding Anniversary.
