One member of the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church set up his portable stereo on a plastic milk crate outside the church and turned it up - loud. The music boomed Saturday along Fitzwater and 20th Streets.
People heard it and came.
Other members erected three folding tables covered with blue plastic smack in the middle of the 1900 block of Fitzwater. They littered them with crayons, tiny scissors, paper, face paint and school paste (the edible variety, naturally).
People saw that and came.
Then someone else set up a grill and began cooking hot dogs - big, fat, sizzling things that popped out of their skins.
People smelled them and came.
Food, games and music, all out in the middle of the street: Who could turn that down?
Hardly anyone, it seems - not in that small slice of South Philadelphia, nor in the leafy neighborhoods of Overbrook Farms, nor in the bricked enclaves of North Philadelphia, nor the postage-stamp lawns of West Philadelphia.
Summer means block parties.
Over on Fitzwater, the Rev. Nathan Stewart, the church pastor, watched over two flocks - his church members and the stack of wieners bubbling on the grill. He smiled at both.
Not all the church's work takes place behind stained glass, he said. "It's not just from the pulpit, and we have to let these people know the church is here."
To the city, Metropolitan's block party was permit No. 940789, one out of 35 scheduled across the city Saturday and yesterday.
The recipe for a block party is pretty simple, really. Take some neighbors ready to swap talk and laughter. Mix in some food, music and maybe some old- fashioned rummage sales. Add summer's heat. Mix well.
Yield: a Philadelphia tradition dating back a half-century.
"Summertime - that's when Philadelphia has its block parties," said Cynthia Williams, an administrative analyst with the city's Streets Department, which issues permits for the gatherings. "It's always been that way."
The first block parties started about 50 years ago, when residents voluntarily started cleaning their blocks and rewarding themselves with an outdoor party at day's end. The practice became so popular that the city had to begin issuing permits for the events about 30 years ago, Williams said.
Now, the city issues about 3,000 permits a year, at $5 per block, and most of them are granted when summer comes sizzling, she said.
The permits allow firefighters and police to know which streets are closed.
