Live, from East Peoria, it’s Saturday Afternoon starring this week’s hosts, Phil and Karen Luciano and featuring a bunch of special guest stars and a return visit to the legendary Historical Luciano Garage!
Now please welcome your hosts for this patriotic party, Phil and Karen Luciano!
I made a snack mix for the party and this time instead of making a savory mix, I went the sweet route.
I crunched up a bunch of different brands of cookies and added Whoppers and Baby Ruth candy bites and this just might be the greatest snack mix I’ve ever put together! I’m pretty excited about it.
Okay, off to the party!
And through the magic of these here interwebs here we are at Phil and Karen’s house. The party is in the backyard and check out the sign: “Welcome To the Patriot Challenge 2021.”
Let’s go on in and see what’s happening.
There’s Phil and he’s busy co-ordinating the massive croquet tournament that’s happening. He explained what was going on, but I don’t know anything about croquet and truthfully my brain doesn’t work very well at this time of day.
I don’t function properly in the sunlight and besides, while it’s entertaining to watch, I wasn’t here for the croquet. I was here for something else and you’ll see what I’m talking about soon!
There’s a nice spread of food here to munch on and everyone enjoyed my sweet snack mix!
There’s a nice crowd of people here and it was fun to see old friends and make new acquaintances.
They had an awards ceremony after the croquet tournaments and there’s Karen with her trophy!
As you can see, I wasn’t the only taking pictures!
This was certainly fun, but I wasn’t here for the awards, nope…I’m here to check out…
The Historical Luciano Garage!
Phil and Karen have the most fantastic and cool garage in the Peoria area and beyond!
The second blog post I did here on MBIP was a trip here in December of 2012 and I was amazed at everything on display in here.
I’d say I’m more than overdue to take a tour in here, so let’s go!
There’s so much to see, so let’s zoom in and take a closer look at this wonderous garage!
One of the most important features in the Luciano Garage is this fully-functional fridge that’s always stocked with a rotating amount of different and interesting beers and liquid refreshments.
Check out the vintage stereo system complete with an 8 track player that actually works.
Phil has a nice eclectic collection of 8 track tapes including: Deep Purple, The Byrds, Yes, Billy Joel, Queen and the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever!
I was so happy to see that Phil has a couple of pieces of art done by my brother Jim A.K.A. Swami on display in here!
I didn’t see these last time! This was a very nice surprise!
One of my favorite things on display in here is Sascha the Hamm’s Bear from the outside wall of Bowl-Mor Lanes.
Bowl-Mor was a place I hung out at during my high school years playing pinball, smoking cigarettes and just being a general nuisance to anyone around me!
The Peoria Riverfront Museum borrowed this for their “Stuff! The Art Of Collecting!” show back in 2015. The bottom three photos are from that exhibit.
There’s so much fun stuff to gaze at in here, I could spend weeks wandering around in here!
Beer cans and Barry Manilow!
Cheers from Cliff!
The ceiling is decorated with some of Phil’s t-shirts from the past.
I was going to get Phil and Karen to pose for a picture in here, but they were busy entertaining the guests and when I saw this photo from their wedding day in front of Kelleher’s Irish Pub, I thought it was the perfect closing shot!
——
Thanks to Phil and Karen for a fun Third of July Party and for letting me tour the Historical Luciano Garage once again!
Happy Fifth of July everyone!
——
Related Post: Phil And Karen Luciano…House Call!
——