Neighborhood wins ice cream party
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

WE ALL SCREAM- A young member of the Bristol Avenue family enjoys his free ice cream during last weekend's Dreyer's-sponsored "Two Scoop Neighborhood Salute."

If you ask the residents of Bristol Avenue what makes their neighborhood so sweet, they'll tell you it's the ice cream that helps make their hearts grow fonder.

For the third year in a row, the self-proclaimed "gutter gang" on Bristol Avenue has won the Dreyer's "Two Scoop Neighborhood Salute" contest, where the winners get to enjoy a full-service summer ice cream block party.

Dreyer's awards 1,500 parties nationwide and ships enough ice cream and party supplies to the winners to serve up to 100 people. One of this year's winners was Bristol Avenue's Rochelle Hale, for her essay saluting her closeknit neighborhood.

She wrote: "No matter how busy we are, as warm weather comes, everyone dreams of a few lazy days, a few more baseball games, a few more picnics and just time to be together. In our neighborhood, we long for the beginning of our summer barbecues where we are reacquainted with our neighbors and spend many a summer evening feasting, visiting and watching our children at play."

Out of the 31 houses in and around Bristol Avenue, about 20 families come together regularly. Every Friday night during the summer months, friends and neighbors gather for an endofweek barbecue or the occasional chili cook-off. The neighbors take turns hosting the parties.

"I just love that we know each other," Hale said. "The children know all the families. There's a lot of trust. We can always rely on the neighbors and the children know they can go to any home if they ever need help."

Hale hosted the ice cream party at her home on Saturday night, when more than 40 of her closest neighbors came to savor the sweet escape. Hale also won the contest two years ago, while Brenna Gesler from next door won last year.

Steve and Judy Hall, who've lived on Bristol Avenue for more than 20 years, said they're fortunate and blessed to belong to such a close neighborhood.

"We had so much fun," Judy said. "My favorite ice cream is Dreyer's, so it's nice because you get to try a little bit of each one. It was nice at the party seeing the neighbors because some of them who'd been really busy stopped by for it."