If you can hear the music, you're invited

Yesterday evening I was sitting the backyard with my wife when it became apparent that the folks diagonally over the fence were having one of their huge parties. Actually, they don't have them often - I'd say only once a year which would make sense in hindsight after what I found out. This year I decided I was going to go over and introduce myself, so around 8pm I grabbed a 2 litre bottle of homebrew and away I went. I decided it was time to meet more of the neighbours and what better time than at their party?

So I hopped the fence directly behind me, and walked over to the next house where the party was - and what a party I found! There had to be 40 or 50 people inside and out. They had a bar set up in the shed, and a huge spread of professionally catered food which occupied a good 1/4 of their tiny yard. I quickly met the owners and said "Where I come from, if you can hear the music, you are invited. So I invited myself". As it turned out, he was pleased-as-punch to hear that, and over the course of the evening made sure I was well taken-care-of for both food and drinks. He told me he was celebrating his birthday - and wow he sure was celebrating in style with that huge spread.

I believe the family and most of the friends were from the Caribbean somewhere, and it seems where they are from, the same rule applies : if you can hear the music, you are invited. I met a lot of great folks, and in fact there turned out to be several people there from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

I got to meet a lot of neighbours, in fact, that I had never met before. There were people there from a number of the houses on the street behind me, and even the husband and wife from over the fence, whose kids I wrote about recently, were there. After some time I came back home to check in on the family, and my oldest son (who is 7) was the only one still up - and being brought up no stranger to a good party, he wanted to go check it out too. So we went back over together for a while and mingled once again - there were a lot of other kids there so he was not out of place by any means.

If anyone from the party last night is reading, I just wanted to say "thanks" once again, and underscore what a great time I had! It really is great to be getting to know the neighbours, finally.