A Regular Party

A Critique of A Regular Party
but they wanted to share the mood of Peace and Love. They wore flowers in their hair, metaphorically and literally. Although largely married, havin
Description
The last Saturday night in January I arrived at a house in Surrey at about eight o’clock. There were about another thirty people there, mostly around my age, a smattering of forty year olds, and a couple of adolescents. Guests arrived with a bottle of wine, some brought food. Everyone wore something strange on their heads, a wig, a mask, or a hat. The lights were flatteringly low, the house was warm, casual seating everywhere, and a table loaded with fresh food. I had lots of chats with old friends, met several new people, had a bit of fun with various headgear and arrived home at around 1.30am
Analysis
This event, with variation, has been a regular date for around forty years, it being a celebration of the host’s birthday. It ticks many boxes. It is a way of returning hospitality; it gives a focus to the dark grey days of January to distract from post-Christmas blues. It ensures that the house gets a good going over. Most important of all though, it reinforces friendships. This factor over-rides all others and was the founding principle at its inception.
Interpretation
As a cultural phenomenon it belongs in the latter years of the Swinging Sixties. The eight people who still form the core group of the guests wanted a taste of the current Zeitgeist.
They were a little older than the youngsters who went to Isle of Wight Festival, g families, they did not want to feel trapped in the nuclear unit. They wanted to have good friends, of both sexes. They wanted to discuss art, books, clothes, cars, films, sex and relationships late into the night. They listened to the Beatles, but they danced to the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Dr Hook Bob Dylan, among many others.
Parents warned that it would all end in tears, and indeed, some were shed. The guest list varied as relationships faltered and altered. New people came and went and have continued to do so. However there is a core group of about sixteen people who always celebrate.
Evaluation
Does the formula still work? Is this an annual trip into nostalgia, pleasant once a year? Do guests sit in prescribed places holding forth about the inadequacies of younger people? Are they complacent? Are they self-satisfied? If there was any of that I missed it.
Does it fulfil its aims to reinforce friendship within and across the gender divide? Is the conversation still lively and stimulating? Is there still a touch of carnival, of Saturnalia, a universal wish to cut through the commonplace and touch the exotic? Do they still dance?
Well, it looked like it, except that this year they did not dance, but they will next year.

I give it xxxx