Metroplex Atheists "If you're interested in us, we're interested in you!" Infidels' Bash Party 2001 Yeah, that's right. For about the fourth year in a row, a couple-dozen Texas troublemakers got together at Dick Hogan's backyard "party barn" for a few hours of fun. Here are some pictures and commentary of what went on. . . Here's Shane and Kim testing out the foosball table. Thankfully, Dick Hogan finally got a new table to replace the really decrepit one he's had for years. It was just getting sad, but the new one is quite nice. (as to why this picture's b&w, Brian was fiddling with his camera settings. Sorry) Folks congregating around the bar and chatting it up. Shelly and Dick spent a lot of time behind the bar pretending to be fry-cooks. Since coffee upsets Shelly's pregnant tummy, she misses her morning ritual of making a mocha-vente-latte-something-or-other. To compensate, she brought her coffee materials and ground and made fancy coffees for anyone who wanted one. She was kept quite busy, making a couple-dozen of 'em. Brian and Ginny have just a bit too much to drink Brian and Everett test out the new table while an interested onlooker cheers 'em on. Since the gift-exchange was a hit last year, we did it again. Some gifts were serious, like the card game that Chuck won. Some gifts weren't so serious, like the plastic "Buddy Christ" that Sammie Ruth took home. He's a mascot for the movie "Dogma" and is perfect for adorning the dashboards of unwashed heathen. Danny Barnett won a bowl of nuts, which elicited endless nut-related puns. The most short-lived gift of the night was a selection of liquor-filled chocolates that John won. Immediately after the exchange, they were opened and distributed to anyone interested. They lasted about ten minutes! Here are a couple more party pics sent to us. Enjoy! Once again, Shelly flipped burgers for the group. We also had veggie-burgers available for the herbivores in the crowd. She's getting better at it and actually ventured into sautéed onions this time around. Here's one of Metroplex Atheists' biggest buddies, Sammie Ruth Fowler. She's an 80 year-old troublemaker from Abeline who doesn't miss one of our parties. Some folks stuck with discussion rather than beer-drinking and foosball. I guess we can't fault 'em for that. Here's the gift-exchange. Yes, Dick Hogan's party barn is as eclectic as it looks! The 2001 Sign Drama 2001 was just a weird year for the Weatherford signs. For the uninitiated, four years ago Dick Hogan won a court case regarding a religious display that was traditionally on the courthouse lawn. Rather than forbid religious displays from the courthouse lawn, the then-judge made the lawn an unrestricted open forum. In order to demonstrate what a lousy idea this is, we've been putting up signs every year. There's a full description of the drama here. Anyway, this year we had plans to put up a similar display to previous years and had gotten our permits when the locals threw in an interesting wrinkle --they moved their nativity scene to private property! Furthermore, some Parker County officials contacted Dick Hogan about what it would take to finally change the policy to close the open forum. Thinking that religious displays were leaving the courthouse lawn once and for all, John and Shelly attended the next county commissioners meeting to let the commissioners know that our signs would similarly not be going up this year. Here's a contingent of party-goers posing on the display-less lawn. And here are the three main troublemakers posing in front of the courthouse's new display, a recently-planted tree with lights. Unfortunately, it appears that we declared victory a bit too soon. The day after our party, it appears that an entirely different group got a last-minute permit and put up their own nativity scene display! Oh well, up go the signs. Sorry, Parker County. Kill off this bonehead open-forum policy and this nonsense will cease! Return to the Metroplex Atheists main page