Once Upon a Neighborhood...

 “Swing into Summer” has started in my neighborhood. Yes, it is that time of year we celebrate our neighborhood by getting to know one another in the southwest quadrant of town. We started on a small scale just a few years ago, and now we are really on a roll! We even have our own website with photos and lots of information about all our events and our neighbors.

I love hosting this first summer party because Faith and Noah are here, and they truly love parties. They are, in their own eight-year-old way, very helpful! I started planning for the party months ago when I hired the band, “Above the Fold.” Two of the members, Lee Saur and Tom Adamson, are in our quadrant so it makes perfect sense to hire them! Dean Orewiler and Ed Simmons come along for the ride! Dean is the spokesperson for the band, and my Trine buddy, of course, so we sealed the deal months ago.

All the other details happen during the week prior to the party. The twins and I gather chalk for the driveway, and sparkly rings for the kids! I move the garden hose so the kids can just run and run and run around the house, and they love doing that! Since I was the host, it was my responsibility to prepare the main course. I decided on barbecued chicken sandwiches, which I love. Of course, when Aimee told me sixty folks were signed up, I had to send a note to our Pleasant Lake cooking guru, Steve Eckert, asking him how much chicken to make. He wrote back immediately saying I needed thirty pounds. Wow. That’s a lot of chicken to make. The kids and I made a trek to the store and filled the Jeep up with, yes, thirty pounds of chicken and all of the ingredients for my famous recipe. I had to double it ten times. Really, it was more like dumping and pouring instead of measuring!

As it was cooking all day, and I do think you could smell it all over the neighborhood, I watched the weather reports. Rain. No rain. Rain. No rain. I knew we couldn’t cancel, but everything was a bit soggy after last week’s downpours. No mowing. No trimming. By the time the band arrived at 5:00, I had decided to move them under the eaves in the back yard. With the string lights lit, and all of their sound equipment ready to go, we were set!

The twins were excited and so was I, although I was a little leery wondering if sixty neighbors would really appear in my yard. Why was I so doubtful, I wonder? From all sides, neighbors began appearing carrying desserts and salads, babies and toddlers, young and old. Most of my neighbors I knew, but not all of them. By 6:15, I was sure we were safe from the rain, so I welcomed everyone, introduced the band and handed the microphone over to Nate to do his welcome also. His philosophy is always that neighbors become family, and he is right.

The band struck up a chord and filled the evening with lots of sing-a-long rock n’ roll songs for all of us. It definitely was my favorite kind of music. I stood watching on my porch at the neighbors from our quadrant getting to know one another or chatting with familiar faces. The food was plentiful with lots of desserts of which the kids loved…and so did I!

On one of my walls inside my purple house, I have an art print from Brian Andreas which says, “Maybe the real reason we are here is to love each other and to eat each other’s cooking and say it was good.” I love that saying. Maybe it is true. Is that why we are here to love one another?

I tell you this story about my neighborhood in hopes that you want to do this in your own neighborhood. If you don’t know what to do, then just start small. Invite a few neighbors, then add a few more, and a few more after that. It has taken our neighborhood three years to build up to our successes. Now that we have a website, we will even add more events.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know your neighbors? All of our differences can melt away over homemade chicken or brownies. We would love to help you get started…just give us a call!

“Swing into Summer” has started in my neighborhood. Yes, it is that time of year we celebrate our neighborhood by getting to know one another in the southwest quadrant of town. We started on a small scale just a few years ago, and now we are really on a roll! We even have our own website with photos and lots of information about all our events and our neighbors.

I love hosting this first summer party because Faith and Noah are here, and they truly love parties. They are, in their own eight-year-old way, very helpful! I started planning for the party months ago when I hired the band, “Above the Fold.” Two of the members, Lee Saur and Tom Adamson, are in our quadrant so it makes perfect sense to hire them! Dean Orewiler and Ed Simmons come along for the ride! Dean is the spokesperson for the band, and my Trine buddy, of course, so we sealed the deal months ago.

All the other details happen during the week prior to the party. The twins and I gather chalk for the driveway, and sparkly rings for the kids! I move the garden hose so the kids can just run and run and run around the house, and they love doing that! Since I was the host, it was my responsibility to prepare the main course. I decided on barbecued chicken sandwiches, which I love. Of course, when Aimee told me sixty folks were signed up, I had to send a note to our Pleasant Lake cooking guru, Steve Eckert, asking him how much chicken to make. He wrote back immediately saying I needed thirty pounds. Wow. That’s a lot of chicken to make. The kids and I made a trek to the store and filled the Jeep up with, yes, thirty pounds of chicken and all of the ingredients for my famous recipe. I had to double it ten times. Really, it was more like dumping and pouring instead of measuring!

As it was cooking all day, and I do think you could smell it all over the neighborhood, I watched the weather reports. Rain. No rain. Rain. No rain. I knew we couldn’t cancel, but everything was a bit soggy after last week’s downpours. No mowing. No trimming. By the time the band arrived at 5:00, I had decided to move them under the eaves in the back yard. With the string lights lit, and all of their sound equipment ready to go, we were set!

The twins were excited and so was I, although I was a little leery wondering if sixty neighbors would really appear in my yard. Why was I so doubtful, I wonder? From all sides, neighbors began appearing carrying desserts and salads, babies and toddlers, young and old. Most of my neighbors I knew, but not all of them. By 6:15, I was sure we were safe from the rain, so I welcomed everyone, introduced the band and handed the microphone over to Nate to do his welcome also. His philosophy is always that neighbors become family, and he is right.

The band struck up a chord and filled the evening with lots of sing-a-long rock n’ roll songs for all of us. It definitely was my favorite kind of music. I stood watching on my porch at the neighbors from our quadrant getting to know one another or chatting with familiar faces. The food was plentiful with lots of desserts of which the kids loved…and so did I!

On one of my walls inside my purple house, I have an art print from Brian Andreas which says, “Maybe the real reason we are here is to love each other and to eat each other’s cooking and say it was good.” I love that saying. Maybe it is true. Is that why we are here to love one another?

I tell you this story about my neighborhood in hopes that you want to do this in your own neighborhood. If you don’t know what to do, then just start small. Invite a few neighbors, then add a few more, and a few more after that. It has taken our neighborhood three years to build up to our successes. Now that we have a website, we will even add more events.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know your neighbors? All of our differences can melt away over homemade chicken or brownies. We would love to help you get started…just give us a call!