Like the music of an ice cream truck rumbling along neighborhood streets, there are some sure signs that summer is finally here.
There is the kids’ first screaming run through the back yard sprinkler, the first scent of hamburgers sizzling on the grill and the much-anticipated placement of yellow construction horses at the end of the street.
These blockades signal nothing so mundane as the start of a construction project. They herald the beginning of block party season, a time that will last well through the dog days of September.
Across Chicago neighborhoods and the southwest suburbs, people are gathering in the middle of their closed streets to spend a day eating, drinking, talking, playing games and dancing.
Already in Midlothian, 25 people have received permits to have neighborhood parties. At one Tinley Park village board meeting in June, trustees gave approval for six parties and will continue giving the OK for them throughout the summer. The Chicago neighborhoods of Beverly and Mt. Greenwood are truly bastions of block parties, together holding more than 200 a year.
For Julie Ryan and her neighbors in the 2500 block of 110th Street in Chicago, the party gets under way at the unusually early hour of 8 a.m. and lasts until the wee hours of the following morning.
“We start with a pancake-and-sausage breakfast,” said Ryan. “We do that because the kids are up that early. They are so wired for it. This is the one time in the year they can play in the street.”
After the pancake breakfast, the party follows a schedule much like parties that start later in the afternoon. There is a children’s bicycle parade, games and prizes for kids and adults, a potluck dinner and dancing to music spun by a disc jockey. Sometimes a fire truck will stop by so kids can crawl all over it, or a mounted Chicago Police Department officer and his horse will visit.
“The block party brings out people that you don’t normally see,” Ryan said. “There are people who work so you don’t talk to them unless you see them watering their lawns. (At the party) you get to sit down and talk with them.”
Although no great problems or issues have been resolved at the party held on Peggy Raggio’s block in Orland Park, it has been lots of fun, and neighbors have fond memories of past get-togethers. Those memories are enhanced by the videotapes Raggio has made since the parties started nine years ago.
“It’s fun to look at the tape now and see kids who were 8 years old who are now driving,” Raggio said.
It was for their children that the neighbors in Raggio’s subdivision organized their first block party.
“When we first moved here everybody had young children,” Raggio explained. “Most of us had come from areas where kids played Red Rover and Ring Around the Rosy on summer evenings. We wanted our kids to have that.”
Raggio said that because of today’s hectic pace, people must be willing to put forth effort to have a neighborhood as close-knit as the one she grew up in in Evergreen Park.
“On summer evenings (in Evergreen Park) the kids played together. Everybody knew each other and people could just mosey over to a neighbor’s house for a drink on the porch,” she said.
Raggio and others on her block have been successful at creating that sense of a tight community. “People who have moved away still come back for the party,” Raggio said.
They may be returning because the parties are so unique. Every year the neighbors select a theme for the party, such as Christmas in June, the Wild West or a road rally. This year’s party had a sports theme.
“My favorite year was Christmas in June,” Raggio said. “We actually had a full turkey dinner with nine turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes and all the trimmings. And my husband, Bob, played Santa Claus.”
While every party thrown by Raggio’s block has a theme, they are not always elaborate. For example, this year’s party fare was simple: hot dogs, brats, popcorn and Cracker Jack.
The per-family cost for such parties varies depending on whether partygoers are expected to bring their own food or how elaborate the entertainment is. The cost for most block parties ranges between $10 and $40 per family. Most people like to keep costs low to encourage attendance.
Raggio’s neighbors have simplified at least one aspect of party planning. Instead of switching the date every year to try to accommodate everyone’s schedule they have a standing party date of the last weekend in June.
“We like to have it fairly early in the summer,” Raggio said. “It sets a tone for the summer of neighborliness.”
In fact, Raggio believes that having a block party helps head off any disputes or problems among neighbors that could occur along any street or block.
The party usualy rages until the early hours of the next day. On the morning after, some neighbors on 110th Street drag themselves from the bed they so recently fell into to take part in a breakfast of leftovers.
“We have leftovers like chicken and sandwiches. Maybe somebody offers to scramble some eggs or make coffee,” Ryan explained.
