Block Party

In the mid-50's, Block Parties were in their heyday. Two summers in a row, at least, there were

Block Parities on Winona. The block was so long that only from the hill down to Wabash was

included in the festivities. There were about 15 houses involved and almost every house had

kids. Of course, the Meyer family made up for any childless couples because they had about

eight kids in that one house. It was a strange house that didn't look like any other of the houses

on the block, not even the Neithe house. It was made of dark shingles with dirt instead of a lawn in front and back. There were odd items in the yards and dirty toys of all kind. During the block parties, none of the kids were allowed to go, and the parents chose not to go either.

There were games and food and music. I don't know how they kept the food in the safety zone,

you don't have to worry about that when you are only 10 years old. For entertainment, Joann,

Linda, Diane and Marsha provided music accompanied by a kiddy phonograph and 45 rpm

records. We were somewhat good at lip-synching to "Doggie in the Window," "Lollipop,"

and "Mr. Sandman." We even made Neil take part in the singing, cause he was the only male

lip-syncher available.

After the entertainment, Mr. Nagle hooked up his radio to a speaker of some sort and the

parents did some dancing in the street. We went into Linda's basement and played Super

Market with all the cans her mom had stored there. Sometimes, we'd pretend some of us

were girls and some were boys, and the "boys" would ask the "girls" to dance.

About 10 or 11 p.m., people would start to wander back to their own houses, calling for their

kids to follow them home. Sometimes, we had so much fun at the June Block Party, we'd

have another one in August.