Burns Park gears up for halloween; Granger to be closed

photo by Deb Odom Stern
I grew up in a neighborhood where if I wanted to go on a play date, my mom had to drive me. The roads were too curvy and too steep for bike riding, and there were no sidewalks. (In fact someone wrote a book about the town and titled it, “There Are No Sidewalks Here”.) It was easier to drive to the market than to ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar, and Halloween virtually did not exist — NO ONE came to our house on Halloween — prompting an annual lament from my mother.
I moved to Burns Park, in part because I wanted the opposite experience for my children — where Halloween on Granger Avenue and the streets which surround it is like no other experience in town — it is the way most of us imagine Halloween should be. One homeowner estimates that she passes out close to 700 pieces of candy each year! Another carves the largest jack ‘o lantern you’ve ever seen — at least four feet in diameter — and lights it with a 100 watt bulb (the kind with the hook on top like you’d find hanging in an auto shop). And then there is the guy who actually makes the kids do a trick before handing out the treat. (My son can proudly touch his nose with his tongue, so no worries there.)
Sunday the residents of Granger Avenue will again welcome hundreds of goblins, fairies, action figures, and their parents coming to trick or treat at their doors. But this year, in a “Why didn’t we think of this before?” twist, Granger Avenue (between Olivia and Ferdon) will be closed to car traffic from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thus the streets that feed into Granger (Olivia, Lincoln, & Baldwin) will dead-end there too. The City Council approved this at its Oct. 18 meeting.
My other son tells me that he, “has a new route planned this year” which he will share with his friends from pre-school who will be coming over for our “5th Annual Pre-School/Soccer Team Halloween Party” — six boys (and their families) who have known each other since they were 3 years old. And although they are now in 4th grade at different elementary schools spread across Ann Arbor, they still get together to celebrate Halloween at our house in Burns Park, and the streets which surround it.
Deb Odom Stern is a Realtor® with the Charles Reinhart Company. She lives and works in Burns Park, is President of the Burns Park Players and Editor of the Burns Park Press. She can be reached at deb@debodomstern.com.
Comments
eom
Fri, Oct 29, 2010 : 8:18 p.m.
I grew up in the Burns Park neighborhood and enjoyed every single MOMENT of Halloween. I have amazing memories of the Burns Park Parade - walking around the block so the whole world (hey, we were kids, it seemed like the world was watching!) could see our cool (98% homemade) costumes and the wide smiles that went with them. Closing Granger is genius. May you and yours have a spectacular Halloween - and please, don't worry about the folks who might have to go a minute out of their way on a Sunday evening. I'm guessing the Sunday evening work force can handle the detour. Have a great time!
Macabre Sunset
Fri, Oct 29, 2010 : 1:16 p.m.
Not sure closing Granger is a good idea since it's an artery for access to Burns Park from the northwest. You're going to have a lot of people who don't know about the road closing coming home from work and having to take a slightly different route just while the kids are coming out - unsure of what's going on. You're going to have people driving around the roadblock because they live there. So the kids can't be sure there won't be cars. Isn't it better just to assume that kids know to look both ways before crossing the street? Or has that little piece of advice evaded our self-righteous parents and council members the last decade or so? It is a wonderful neighborhood for trick-or-treating. By the time I was eight, we had it all mapped out - knowing to avoid the old guy on Brooklyn who not only decided to hand out a penny instead of candy, but gave us a long, long lecture on the value of shiny new pennies. Time is precious when you have hundreds of houses to visit.