Birthday Bash 2008 Event

The weather was cool but sunny as 125 costumed re-enactors descended upon Golden on Saturday, February 23th to pay their respects to William F. Cody aka Buffalo Bill on his 162nd birthday. Master of Ceremonies, Ralph Melfi, got the proceedings rolling at 1:00 pm. Attendees were entertained with some good ole Western music courtesy Rattlesnake Jake Martin. Additionally, Ralph Melfi put together some tough questions for a Trivia Contest on Western history Nobody got all the questions answered correctly but the person with the most correct answers was David Wood and he took home a beautiful framed print for his knowledge.

Then the whole group trooped outside and took their places in front of the Buffalo Rose for a group photo….and yes, we did stop traffic along the Avenue to allow the photographer an unobstructed view of all the costumed re-enactors. Moreover, there were a number of spectators who also brought out their cameras for this spectacular picture of the re-enactors in all of their finery. This panoramic photo will be displayed in the main hall of the Buffalo Rose (interested parties may view the photo and order prints at www.watermargin.com/buffbill)

After the photo shoot, everyone went back into the hall to review the contestants in the costume contest. There were some mighty handsome people decked out in their finest with the winners decided by popular vote. Katherine Linstrom again won the ladies prize with Linda Gleichmann taking 2nd place and Libby Pilkington taking third. Jim Harvin won for the gents with C. D. (Red Bear) Draper winning 2nd place and Ted Griffis winning 3rd.

Then it was on to the costume with monologue contest and the judges definitely had their work cut out for them! The judges for this event were Barbara Melfi, Mike Guli, David Powers and Jacque and Tim Matz. All of the judges have experience in history, costuming, or character presentation and as each entrant presented his/her character, they also were quizzed by the judges on their knowledge of their character. Taking home prizes were the following:

Visit the photo gallery for the winners of the costume and presentation with costume contest.

You can't have a birthday party without a birthday cake so, rounding out the event, cake was served to all guests and then the party was over until next year.

This event was planned and sponsored by re-enactors, Ralph and Barbara Melfi and the Golden Buffalo Bill Days committee: Tom Mackey, Brenda Dolan, Bill and Charlene Pazar.

It was one 'heckuva' party!