in my hometown back on long island, this is a local phenomenon, though i'm sure it's not restricted to my area.

a block party is when a whole block gets the township's permission to close off the road. then, they hire a dj, rent some carnival games, move all their plastic lawn furniture into the street, make lots of food, and then get drunk.

speaking from personal experience, this sort of get-together is great for the little kids and the middle-aged. all the teens from all over town tend to congregate at a darkened section of the block and drink the beers they've either purchase with a fake ID or stolen from the drunken middle-aged folk.

if your area has block parties, please add a writeup describing them. most people not from long island seem to give me an odd look when i describe this to them. i'd be interested to know where else this takes place and how it differs.

Similar parties are held in suburban neighborhoods. Filled with 10 year old kids having too much fun, and ~40 year old adults trying to. We don't hire DJs here, instead they usually guilt a kid with a wicked stereo (me) into doing the music. No matter what, do not help them. I did the music the last two block parties on my block, this year I said "forget about it" Choosing the music is fun, dragging 4 bigass Pioneer speakers home when everyone else is too drunk to help at 1am is not. The kids play basketball, egg toss and soccer, while the adults indulge in socialization until they think drunk tug of war is a good idea. drunk tug of war, usually played between men and women, often results in the anchor having his/her pants fall down. It's really a shame I didn't do the music, I would have made a badass DJ in my TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION t-shirt, and the music that the middle-aged people put on sucked rocks.

This is in Broomall/Marple, a suburb of Philadelphia, YMMV

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