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Mayoff Day this year, Texas style once again was a wonderful success. Sue and Art Mayoff joined Bernie, Denise and about 50 of their friends and family. A comprehensive report including the actual recording of Doug Frazier's Mayoff Day song, tons of color photos and graphics can all be viewed on-line at mayoff.com. This installment provides our readers with the genesis of this jovial holiday. What follows is Bernie Mayoff's (Abr) response to the question posed "When did Mayoff Day start and how did it evolve?" "I can't give a precise date - but it was sometime between 1972-1976. Back then I actually had a desk. It was in the IBM building in Chicago and I can remember bringing Mayoff Day cookies and tying balloons to my desk. The desks were all in a big "bullpen area" so everyone got to participate. |
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This year's theme depicts the breadfruit tree and "The Bounty" sailing on the Coral sea |
| That is my first memory of the event. I think I suggested to Denise that I needed to bring cookies to work for the day and about the same time she found the recipe on a bag of peanut butter chips. That is how the traditional Mayoff Day cookies got started and how those particular cookies came to be associated with the holiday. Now she only makes them for Mayoff Day. People everywhere that we have lived and worked with, have had Mayoff Day cookies and some years we'll get a note from someone we haven't seen in years asking us to send them a cookie. |
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Mayoff Day Parade Grand Marshal and Parade Coordinator Bernie and Denise receive commemorative plaque from Art and Sue |
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We've celebrated ever since. Starting
in Chicago (we lived in Hoffman Estates, Illinois), then moving
the celebration to White Plains, New York from 1976-1980 (we
lived in Trumbull, Connecticut). Back then it is something I
only did at work, and of course we had the cookies at home too.When
we moved to Richardson, Texas in July, 1980 the celebration moved
with us. Actually I worked in Irving, Texas (home of the Dallas
Cowboys). In 1981 we joined Mensa and began hosting pool/spa
parties for Mensa almost as soon as we joined. The pool parties
were a perfect way to celebrate Mayoff Day and we extended invitations
to other friends. We aren't involved with Mensa anymore, but
the invitation list continues to grow and the two traditions
have become intertwined. (Many, many years ago I read Heinlein's
classic A Stranger in a Strange Land and learned the value of
sharing water.) As friends of different nationalities learn about
the party they have tendency to tell their families back in their
native countries about Mayoff Day, and in some cases they've
returned to their native countries - so the holiday began to
gain an international following. And with The Family Descendant,
the holiday has spread to Mayoffs all over the world. [Mayoff
Day traditionally is June first, the day on which we take May
off the calendar and it's usually celebrated the prior Saturday.]
So it has been celebrated continuously now for 23-27 years as far as historians can tell. Does that count as an era or an epoch?" |
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Bernie, Sue and Denise take a break on a Texas rooftop. |
