Couple Celebrates 50th at 23rd Annual Haddon Twp. Block Party

The balloons, bands, crowds and flowing beer at the 23rd Annual Haddon Township Block Party may as well have been for Michael and Diane Verdi.

They sat like sentinels at a table near the corner of W. Park and Crystal Lake avenues, selling tickets to rides, offering up directions and generally presiding over one heck of a party.

"This is our 50th wedding anniversary," Michael, 75, a retired Aramark food service manager, said to a reporter. "This is how we spend it just about every year now."

The happy couple sat at the table with their friend Alma.

"We're like the three musketeers," Diane Verdi, 69, said. "We're all over town together."

Michael said their son in law, Paul Dougherty, is a township commissioner, part of the governing body of three top elected officials. They've lived in Haddon Township for years and take pride in helping out at big events like the block party and the Halloween and Christmas parades.

Diane's mother had a dinner party for them on their first wedding anniversary in 1963. They had planned to go to Italy for their 50th anniversary but an illness delayed the trip. Now they hope to go next year, but in the spring.

The question of why to go in the spring may have been obvious before it was asked.

It's not likely the Italians would throw an anniversary party like this for them.