Murray Avenue BBQ

On Sunday we were invited to a BBQ on our block.

In case we haven't bragged about it before, our short block is a one way street in Ann Arbor with a bunch of small and funky houses from the turn of the (last) century. All of the people are really nice and friendly, and there are a million kids. The Ann Arbor News wrote a short article about us:

Murraymania

Murray Avenue is a block-long street bookended by Liberty and Washington, a finite slice of Ann Arbor's Old West Side. It has about 30 houses, lots of families, and an identity all its own.

One neighbor designed iron-ons that proclaim "I'm a Murray kid." Zac and Penny Johnson have already found one in their mailbox, and their Murray kid isn't due until September. When their daughter is born, Zac estimates, Murray Avenue will be home to 11 kids under the age of 2.

Murray also has its own electronic community thanks to a central "murrayave" e-mail address that disperses messages to every e-mail on the street. It's how every household can weigh in on issues that affect the neighborhood, like parking woes caused by the new YMCA. It's also how the Murray crowd gets rid of things like extra sod, building materials and that old porch swing without having to haul them away. They just put out an e-mail and share the wealth.

Anyhoo, we had a BBQ on sunday and here are a few of the pictures that Henry showed up in.


Teresa & Hank
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Vicki & Hank
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Mary-Catherine & Hank
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The rest of the photos of our neighbors are here (if you're really bored and like looking at photos of people you don't know).