Block Party

I have said before that we have terrific neighbors - we are blessed - but yesterday really confirmed that for us. We threw a block party for the 10 houses on our little dead end street and these folks came prepared to have a fine time.

They loaned us charcoal grills, benches for guests and long tables for food setup. They brought dishes to pass - mango salsa with black beans and chips, Mediterranean pasta salad with Italian sausage, beet and feta cheese bruschetta on grilled raisin bread, pesto pasta with chicken. Everyone contributed something to the fun.

On this gloriously beautiful day, we had neighbors ranging in age from 80-something to about 8 and perhaps the most fun were the teenagers who mingled with the grownups during lunch, then clustered out on the deck together, filling the house with laughter and liveliness. Everyone brought their own favorite grillables and were their own grill chefs - all we did was light the charcoal and stand back. I made Molly's Dad's potato salad (from her book, A Homemade Life) and a green salad, plus the makings for "Make Your Own Sundaes."

Make Your Own Sundaes is great fun. With a selection of ice cream flavors (vanilla, chocolate and coffee this time), you provide flavored syrups (raspberry, caramel and chocolate), nuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, maraschino cherries - whatever you like, really - and the guests create the most amazing confections based on their own special dreams. I have a theory that you can tell a lot about a person based on the sundae s/he concocts. The teenagers ate with abandon, piling on the whipped cream, using more than one flavor of sauce, and delighting in the unearthly red of the cherries. Other folks were more circumspect, adding just a dab of cream and a drizzle of sauce with perhaps a spoonful of nuts. MYOS brings out the kid in you, if kid there be.

Our oldest neighbor said there had never been a block party before; she has lived here since 1932 when she and her husband built their house, back when she was a young bride and it was the only house on the street. Cora welcomed the other neighborhood dogs - even funny little Bob, a puggle, who used the opportunity to abscond with her rawhide bone - she seemed to enjoy having her friends over as much as we did. The talk flowed from topic to topic, there was plenty of laughter and ribbing and, happily, talk of repeating the event every year, now that it has gotten started.