The Early Years — Part 5

Just follow the sign upstairs

One of the things Dennis and I had in common was the love of throwing a party, especially in December around the Christmas holiday season. The party I threw in December 1979 was the first one Dennis attended. We had just met in October of that year when he was transferred to the general office of the truck line where we both worked. This was my first big party, as I had bought the house earlier in the year. I even went so far as to rent a mirrored ball to use for "Cleo's Palace Disco"—the empty room upstairs that I converted into a dance floor for the party. The upstairs of my house was unheated, but there were heat ducts in the floor; you could look down through them into the lower part of the house. I moved the stereo's speakers from the living room into the "disco" and ran the speaker wire through the ducts, leaving the receiver, the tape deck and turntable in the living room where I'd control the music. The disco was a huge hit. At times it sounded like the floor would collapse but it never did.

Left to right: Bruce, Jerry Kocsis, Tom Wade (blurred),
Judy Kocsis, unknown, Ron Devroy

Dennis (middle in gray), talking to brother-in-law
John, sister Eileen, Bruce

I can't remember for sure, but the first time we threw a party together was either December 1980 or 1981. I know we didn't have one in 1982, as we had the house up for sale and we were getting close to selling it, which would finance our move to San Francisco. Dennis's sister Eileen and her husband John came to this party, along with about 50 other people. I did not recreate the disco from previously, but the place was hopping. We had lots of food and lots of libations for everyone's enjoyment.

Once we moved to San Francisco, our partying tradition followed. We didn't have any "super" parties until we bought the house in August of 1996. That December, our San Francisco tradition of having a holiday party started. We would always have an elaborate menu, turning the dining room table into a smorgasbord of tasty treats, including but not limited to, cheese empanadas, seafood sandwich rolls, deviled ham puffs, crab stuffed ham rolls, Swedish and porcupine meatballs, crab cakes, pumpkin cranberry bread, crab and cream cheese spread for the party-sized bread, deviled eggs, champagne punch—and that just covers what I can recall at the moment. All the goodies were hand-made by the two of us. I even went so far as using blank business cards as food labels so people would know what they were grabbing. It came in handy because people do have food allergies and we certainly didn't want someone who was allergic to nuts, for example, to eat something that would make them sick or potentially kill them. Having someone get sick is not too good for a party atmosphere.

The last big party we threw was for our 25th anniversary. Even though our anniversary was in September, we celebrated it with friends at the annual holiday party in December. It was a memorable event. Our best friend, Tom Wade, made a heartfelt toast to us, even getting a big laugh from the crowd when he stated, "I've known Rick and Dennis for over 30 years, and I've always hated one thing about them." A big pause here for comedic effect, then he added, "They haven't gained a pound since I've know them."

I then took the floor, as I wanted to publicly express my love for Dennis. Looking at Dennis, who was standing next to me, I said, "I wanted to tell you this when we were in Hawaii during our anniversary in September, but I couldn't get the words out because I was too emotional. I'm going to try again, and if I break down in tears, at least I'm in a room full of friends instead of a room full of strangers in a restaurant." Holding my glass of champagne in the air, I continued, "Thank you for being with me the past 25 years, the happiest years of my life. You are my life and I love you with all my heart. I'm ready to go for another 25; how about you?" He nodded yes, gave me a big hug and kiss and we enjoyed the spontaneous applause from our friends. Little did either of us know at that time that we were only going to be given five more years together.