What the Heck is a Block Party?
On Saturday afternoon, I finally met some of the people in the church plant. There was a block party on Michael's block and several of them were there.
Let me back up just a second and try to explain to some of you what a block is and subsequently, what a block party is.
You often hear people from cities talking about people on the block, and several of you have no idea what that means. I've always understood what it meant, but I've never explained it before, so here's my best attempt.
In New York City, and many older Northern Cities, the streets are laid out in a grid. People who live there often refer to their neighbors as, "the people on my block." For city dwellers, a block is basically the section of your street between the cross-streets. For example, I grew up on 78th St. between 88th Ave. and 89th Ave. The people on 78th St. on both sides of the street would be considered "on my block." The definition actually has somewhat more flexibility than that, but this definition will have to do for now. This should help explain the origin of the early nineties boy band New Kids on the Block, and J-Lo's self-given title, "Jenny from the Block."
Now a block party is when several individuals, sometimes called a block association, decide to close of the block at the cross streets and have games for the kids, food, music, etc. It's an attempt to make friendly with your neighbors and a chance to prove to your next door neighbor that your hamburgers are the best in Queens.
Anyway, there was a block party on Michael's block this past Saturday, and if was fun for me to meet the people in the core group, find out a little bit about them, tell them a little about me, play musical chairs with the neighbors, and dance the Electric Slide with a cute redhead (I'll elaborate no more on this one, and let your imaginations run wild).
Some of them said they would possibly be able to help me out of my furniture dilemma. Let's see. In any event, a good time was had by all, and now I know that there will, in fact be people in the church when we get going next month, and not just me and Michael spinning our wheels.
As you can see, I now have at least one picture on this blog. I'm still learning about how to do that, but more pictures should show up next week. Stay tuned.
On Saturday afternoon, I finally met some of the people in the church plant. There was a block party on Michael's block and several of them were there.
Let me back up just a second and try to explain to some of you what a block is and subsequently, what a block party is.
You often hear people from cities talking about people on the block, and several of you have no idea what that means. I've always understood what it meant, but I've never explained it before, so here's my best attempt.
In New York City, and many older Northern Cities, the streets are laid out in a grid. People who live there often refer to their neighbors as, "the people on my block." For city dwellers, a block is basically the section of your street between the cross-streets. For example, I grew up on 78th St. between 88th Ave. and 89th Ave. The people on 78th St. on both sides of the street would be considered "on my block." The definition actually has somewhat more flexibility than that, but this definition will have to do for now. This should help explain the origin of the early nineties boy band New Kids on the Block, and J-Lo's self-given title, "Jenny from the Block."
Now a block party is when several individuals, sometimes called a block association, decide to close of the block at the cross streets and have games for the kids, food, music, etc. It's an attempt to make friendly with your neighbors and a chance to prove to your next door neighbor that your hamburgers are the best in Queens.
Anyway, there was a block party on Michael's block this past Saturday, and if was fun for me to meet the people in the core group, find out a little bit about them, tell them a little about me, play musical chairs with the neighbors, and dance the Electric Slide with a cute redhead (I'll elaborate no more on this one, and let your imaginations run wild).
Some of them said they would possibly be able to help me out of my furniture dilemma. Let's see. In any event, a good time was had by all, and now I know that there will, in fact be people in the church when we get going next month, and not just me and Michael spinning our wheels.
As you can see, I now have at least one picture on this blog. I'm still learning about how to do that, but more pictures should show up next week. Stay tuned.
posted by Jack at 1:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home