MBBB1 Recap

Monday, May 19, 1997

Merrick, New York

Schedule

    • Breakfast at the Townhouse Diner in Merrick
    • Austin Powers at the Broadway Mall in Hicksville
    • Ultimate Frisbee at Town Park in Merrick
    • Lunch at Boston Market in Merrick
    • Basketball tournament at Russ's house in Merrick
    • Pool tournament at Span's house in Merrick
    • Dinner at Wendy's in Merrick
    • Poker at Matt's house in Merrick
    • Mario Kart 64 at Marc and Dave's house in Merrick

Participants

Dave (1st), Marc (1st), Matt (1st), Russ (1st), Span (1st), Rolly (1st), Eugene (1st)

Gallery

Anecdotes

Breakfast

Originally scheduled for 9 AM, breakfast started a little late for a couple of reasons. First, everyone was up late trying to figure out who was in fact participating in MBBB1 and who would be driving. Secondly, Matt had trouble getting back to Merrick after dropping his father off at work. However, around quarter of ten, we all sat down to breakfast at Merrick Townhouse Diner. This diner is an institution in our little town of Merrick. Recent high school and junior high school graduates come here to enjoy pancakes, eggs, and fresh-brewed coffee. At breakfast we talked about the year past and also what movie we would see. Austin Powers at Broadway Mall seemed to fit best into our schedule - as it turns out, we shouldn't have been so intent on keeping the schedule.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

After breakfast, we drove over to Broadway Mall in Hicksville to see Austin Powers. We entered the mall and proceeded to the movie theatre past McDonald's. As we sat down in the auditorium, we noticed that we had quite a choice for seats; we thought that we might mistakenly be at a screening of The Postman until we realized that it wouldn't be out until December. The previews set in and soon Mike Myers appeared as our favorite secret-agent man. After about half an hour, we all realized that we didn't like this movie - as Matt might say, "Oh well." This would be the beginning of the MBBB movie curse.

Ultimate Frisbee

We had passed noon and now we headed to Town Park for a little exercise. The Ultimate game had all the makings of a classic. Marc's team fought through the obstacle of Span's glasses being broken to lead most of the first half. The excitement didn't end there though as the game went into sudden death overtime. An already beleaguered David caught the final pass of the game to seal the win for his team.

Lunch

Exhausted, we headed over to Boston Market. Free refills were very much appreciated after the intense disc game. Chicken pot pies, chicken sandwiches, mashed potatoes, corn, two kinds of gravy... We love this place.

Basketball Tournament

The basketball tournament was hard-fought and very intense. It was also rather poorly played. Everyone was tired and this made it hard to play good basketball. Each person displayed that they either lacked skills or didn't have skills that day. Our weary and sore legs betrayed us as we displayed our two-inch verticals; but one team had to win. Marc and Dave wound up winning although not in remarkable fashion. Meanwhile, Rolly was named MVP of the tournament.

Pool Tournament

It was time for the pool tournament at Span's house and to say goodbye to sixth man #1, Rolly. We thanked Rolly for filling in for Eugene and then Euge joined us for a little billiards. In an amazing coincidence, each higher seed in each game won. As the number one seed, Dave prevailed over Marc in the highly contested final.

Dinner

It was getting late as the sun was setting and we decided we would have to cancel bowling. Although we were all looking forward to hanging out with middle-aged men and the elderly, we decided we'd have to put it off to some other time. We traveled to Wendy's to enjoy a well-deserved dinner. We think we saw someone who worked there (Ann Marie maybe) and we discussed the day's events over Frosties. We didn't get to see Dave Thomas but we heard he was in the area.

Poker

It was time to travel to Matt's house to play some poker and, at this point, there was some confusion. While Eugene's car took Merrick Avenue towards Matt's house, Russ' car took Babylon Turnpike. And so, we were split in half. Russ' car pulled over onto the side of the road and waited for Eugene's car. After waiting a short while they decided to continue onto Matt's house but Eugene's car was nowhere to be found. About ten minutes later, they showed up. The poker game was not played for real money and therefore wasn't too exciting. Dave threw in a large bet at the end (and lost it) while Marc abstained from the game and watched TV.

Mario Kart 64

The end of a long day had come. While Span and Dave desired a little board game action, the idea was voted down and it seemed the day had come to an end. But, all of a sudden, it was suggested that Mario Kart 64 be played and everyone agreed to go the Strucks' house except for Matt (who decided to turn in after an exhausting day). Instead of a tournament with rules, Span, Euge, and Dave just played some 3-player Kart as Ravener and Rolly stopped by to say hello. With only having participated in half of the day, Eugene showed the highest mental fortitude and "won" the Mario Kart quasi-tournament. Marc and Russ decided to watch some wrestling on tape and then Rolly suggested that we all go to Great Adventure the next day. We agreed for some reason--perhaps we felt that nothing really could go wrong after enduring the First Annual May Birthday Bash Bonanza.

Notes

    • Courtesy of Matt, planning of the event was often done in a Cornell University chat room: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/msb21/chat.htm. Unsurprisingly, it's no longer there.
    • The original proposal of events can be found here.
    • Bowling and a board game were originally scheduled but were cancelled due to time constraints.
    • Five of us--Adam, Dave, Marc, Matt, and Russ--participated in all of the events. Rolly participated in breakfast through the basketball tournament and Eugene participated in the pool tournament through Mario Kart.
    • Driving was done by Matt, Russ, Rolly, and Eugene.
    • As this was before the age of digital cameras, we unfortunately do not have any photos or video from the first birthday bash.