Joe Furey's TWO Surprise Birthday Parties

Joe Furey is one of my favorite people in the world. He’s a great friend, a loving Dad and one hell of a meteorologist! Sometimes he calls just to say hi and we end up talking for an hour! He calls me his fifth daughter.

Joe’s wife Tracy (who works for WFSB) wanted to plan a surprise party for his birthday at the New England Air Museum. She asked if I would help make a guest list and hand out invitations at FOX. (Obviously it would look suspicious if she showed up at work.)

I had one job…and I blew it. Somehow Joe found the envelope with a WFSB logo in the corner and his wife’s handwriting on it. Of course he started asking questions. So Tracy and I had to think fast. “We’ll have a fake surprise party on his birthday, five days before the real party!” Tracy even made fake surprise party invitations in case Joe went snooping around for more clues.

Well on his birthday, Joe was cranky. After the nor’easter everyone was tired and unshowered. “Joe, let’s have a birthday breakfast!” I chirped on November 1st. Joe is always happy and sweet. Not today.

“Why? I’m not hungry. And I hate surprises. Plus I’m tired,” Joe whined. Oy. Well I finally dragged him out to breakfast and, voila! We had surprise party number one with about 30 people.

Joe bought it.

The real party happened that Friday. Bruce DePriest (Joe’s best friend) wrote Joe a letter pretending to be a “Flying Club” meeting at the New England Air Museum and they invited him to speak! As the date approached, Joe kept wondering why it wasn’t canceled in lieu of the recent storm. The party set-up was fantastic! Tracy did an amazing job. Tables for the party were surrounded by antique airplanes.

“Shhhh….Joe’s here!” The roar of close to a hundred people came to a halt.
“SURPRISE!!!” Well…Joe looked like he saw a ghost.

Joe later told me he thought he died and was seeing his friends and family on the way to heaven. It was a great party and an interesting guest list. Joe has worked for many radio stations and TV stations in the state (we’re a very incestuous industry). So radio legends and TV anchors/meteorologists were strolling around mingling instead of competing for ratings.

We took a group shot of all the meteorologists there. I’m at least a foot shorter than all of them.
Testing the wind speed in the air museum. This is how the pros do it!
Joe got the very best in forecasting technology as a gift...a weather dartboard!
It was a really fun event and I know Joe had a great time! HAPPY BIRTHDAY buddy! I think Joe likes surprises now!

Here are some pics from Geoff Fox's camera: