Block Party

We were talking back in March that it might be time for a Social Event, but we never got around to organizing it. (We were thinking comfort food potluck - something appropriate for the general mood of the country.) By the time March was over, it was time to start thinking about a block party.

For the last several years, we've had a block party in August or September. Lynsley, Kathy, and I come up with a date and Lynsley gets permission from the church for us to use their parking lot. I send out some emails, put it on the web site, and print up flyers. Usually Kathy distributes them, but this year Kathy was gone, and Sally did it - she made sure she went all the way from Cumberland to Highland, and even got the houses around the corners. A few reminder emails go out to everyone we have an email address for, and we ask everyone who gets the emails to invite their neighbors if they are not on the "To:" line - if they aren't there, it's because we don't have an email address for them, not because they aren't invited.

So late afternoon several of us head to the church parking lot with card tables and start setting up. A charcoal grill for folks who want to cook something. Tables for food to share. Lynsley brings trash and recycling containers from across the street. Name tags and a sign up sheet for the neighborhood directory. Bubbles and sidewalk chalk for the kids.

Then people start to come. Food. Lawn chairs. Meet some new people. How long have you lived here? A few neighbors bring friends; Sabine's parents are visiting from Germany. Neighbors who are moving but want to be kept on the distribution list, one family that doesn't live here yet but will when construction is done on their house. Someone says we should do this more often. Talking with people we know and people we just met. How old are your children? Which one is yours? Little kids blow bubbles. Big kids play street artist with the sidewalk chalk. When is the baby due? Lots of food.

It was about dark before the music started. We have wonderfully talented musicians on our street (resident or honorary - not everyone who played actually lives here). What a great treat, to sit in a lawn chair on a summer evening and listen to music.

It gets late. Eventually the lawn chairs get folded up and taken home one by one. The mostly empty bowls and platters are retrieved, the bottles go into recycling. When it's done, late that night, all that's left is the chalk drawing on the asphalt.

On Wessyngton Road, we've been doing this for several years, and before that, there were other events that were great fun. There was the Christmas decoration tour, and Margaret made those charming penguin appetizers out of olives stuffed with cream cheese, with little carrot beaks (they were almost too cute to eat). There have been pot luck dinners and baby showers. There have been going away parties. I remember two Halloween parties - one in Amy's garage and one hosted by Todd and Charlotte.

Speaking of Halloween - if we can throw a great block party on Wessyngton Road, we ought to be able to do something for Halloween. We've got a couple of months to get organized. Stay tuned.