You might want to steer clear of the 1100 block of Monument Street at about noon next July 4…unless you want to get wet.
Monument resident Jim Derose challenged a few neighbors to a water fight before the parade in 2006. The feud between the “upper blockers” and the “lower blockers” has grown ever since, and last Thursday well over 100 neighbors, friends and families participated in a giant water fight that spread across a dozen front lawns and out on the pavement.
“It’s a total out-of-control most fun you could ever have,” said resident John Beaver, who provided the photos on this page. “We fill up hundreds of water balloons and fill up big trash cans of water, so that people can fill their buckets and go on the attack. There are also various squirt guns, water guns and hoses. Anyway you can get someone wet, we do it.”
About 60 percent of the people on the block (between Albright and Bestor), from age 3 to over 70 participate. Two people, including Deborah Morehead, stand at each end of the block with signs, effectively warning cars to detour.
Every year a Monument Street Water Fight trophy is given out and this year it went to the new family on the block, the Lavias, who moved in only a few months ago and joined in the mayhem.
Beaver was asked about the critera for winning the trophy. He said that the family that has the trophy awards it the following year—perhaps to a new family on the block, a family that dresses in similar costume, or one that is particularly adept at getting other people wet.
The one truism, according to Beaver, is that everyone has fun…And everyone enjoys getting wet.
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