On Saturday August 2nd we celebrated my childhood friend’s Thanasi’s 60th Birth Day!

Where? In the island of Kea.

A sixtieth  birthday is certainly a milestone event.  For an individual it means to grow forever distant from the “Sweet Sixteen” memory tag and to enter gracefully into the “Sweet Sixty” era!  For this special event the younger generation was instrumental in organizing the birthday party cum Beauty Contest  titled “Miss KAT ’08”, short for Katevati, the area in Kea where a group of friends maintain their summer homes.

Our neighbors and friends had a lovely idea to add flavor and fun to the party.  Thus, to do a beauty contest (for both women and men) was selected from the previous  morning brainstorming session.  The Beauty Queen’s Crown had to be conceived and to be fabricated as well as the winner’s ribbon which the Judging committee would award to the elected “Miss Katevati” winner.

The “Miss KAT Crown” had to be fabricated from limited resources, together with the contestant heart shaped tags, also properly decorated and numbered from 1 to 18.  These tags would be then fastened with a clothes line pin on the contestant dresses.

Finally the “winner’s ribbon” was made from a narrow strip of white bed sheet with appropriate logo’s painted on.

The contest rules were simple.  Only 18 entrants were allowed (on first come-first served basis), each voluntary contestant picked his/her numbered tag from a wicker basket and attached the number via clothes pin onto the garment.  The Judging committee would be also voluntary.  The contestants would parade around the swimming pool while camera flashlights snapped and the Judges took notes!

The “Miss KAT Crown” was made from an aluminum cooking tray, its bottom surface slashed carefully in smaller triangular sections which were then raised upwards to form the crown leaves.  The flexible, light material would ingeniously bend easily to fit varying head sizes!  In a pre-event moment, Byron tested the crown for form and fit 🙂

So, by 10:00 the guests had arrived, the food and drinks flowed merrily accompanied by the appropriate music play lists.  These were managed and orchestrated by Thanasi and Alexander from a Mac hooked via Airport to an old times amp and a set of outdoor speakers.  Not the perfect sound system, lacking the power of full blown wattage, but everyone was in good spirits, while the night seemed to be young and certainly ready to roll!

By 11:30 it was declared: “It’s Show Time Folks!”

The music volume went up and the local beauties of either sex started their serenading and parading: