National Night Out 2009

A few days ago we found a note on our door about National Night Out, hosted just up the street from our place. So tonight, we headed out at 6pm and joined the party. Quite a few folks had showed, and we chatted with a number of people while we were there. The cops came out a little early and blocked off the part of the street the party was on, and once the party got going a police pickup visited the party driven by this guy:

He had a passenger in his truck as well:


One little girl at the party was absolutely terrified by McGruff, and her parents had to hold her and take he away from the guy while he wandered and visited. They eventually left, with the crash test dummy still driving. The host grilled hot dogs, and kids played in the slip 'n slide in the yard and threw water balloons at each other. The adults mingled and chatted. Then an ambulance arrived and a sense of anticipation started to build. Kids noticed a fire truck rounding the corner and everyone waited for it... and when it arrived the firemen got out and set up a fire hose and:


The fire hose continued a LONG time, much longer than I expected, but no doubt not nearly long enough for some of the kids. The adults, for the most part, stood on the sidewalk near the food to avoid getting sprayed. The kids were soaked through, screaming and running. The breeze kicked up enough of the water towards the adults to make it nice and cool (it was about 90 degrees or so outside).

At one point, one lady sitting out in the street safely outside the water zone made some sort of gesture at the fireman in charge of the hose (whom she apparently knew) and suddenly the water arced higher and farther than it had before and squarely soaked the lady like she had been wearing a target. Fortunately, she was laughing as loudly as all the neighbors.

Eventually the water hose was shut down and kids went back to the slip 'n slide and water balloons. Cake was served. A pinata was brought out, and Eric and I stayed to watch it get slammed repeatedly.


We nearly saw a disaster when one piece flipped out of the pinata and several kids dove for it... while the kid with the stick was still swinging. Yikes!

I was exhausted by this point, purely from the heat, and Eric guided me home. And, after an hour of air conditioning, re-hydrating, and ice cream, I wrote this blog. Yay!