Ye Olde Street Faire

The Clarkson FlatBed Block Party. Gotta love it. No kiddie rides this year. Just good old fashioned pavement-hugging fun.

I brought out the faux vintage popcorn popper and it was a big hit with the little ones. The stoop scene at 11:45 AM: The fact is this was only my second year as an organizer, and I didn't have Miss Janice helping me this time. Her skills as a block party drill sargeant were sorely missed. But you know what? We did it. We filed the permits, scheduled a couple meetings, key people in each building chipped in money and time...and an awful lot of kids had one hell of a day. I'm not going to kidney coat it...this is a very, very satisfying way to spend an afternoon. Seeing so many people laughing, smiling, dancing and eating -- enjoying each other and life itself -- this is good. Very good.
Trying to keep cars off the street, on the other hand, was a bit nerve wracking. I thought the cops would bring barricades, but they rely entirely on we the people (at least here in the 'hood) to block the street at both ends and make sure all cars were off the road and STAYED off the road. And at one point, a cop car ignored our obvious "closed to traffic" deal, jumped the sidewalk, and sped down the street to answer a call. Not cool guys. Sorry...I don't give a rat's knees, you could've killed someone - we had kids EVERYWHERE, and the parents were letting their guard down and enjoying themselves. This crap don't happen in fancier neighborhoods, I'm as sure of that as I'm sure I'm a middle-aged white guy with a bad haircut. I NEED a friggin' haircut.