It’s street party time in Orono

ORONO – No one’s sure just how long they’ve been doing it, but since sometime in the 1960s, residents of Mainewood Avenue have gathered once a year to meet new neighbors and socialize.

About 40 people of all ages who live up and down the rural Orono street gathered Wednesday to carry on the annual tradition in the backyard of Steven and Lisa Colburn.

A small, white tent pitched above tables overflowing with food brought by neighbors and picnic tables covered with checkered tablecloths provided the backdrop for the social event, during which children played off to the side, and adults conversed and introduced one another.

“We’re having everyone wear a nametag so that we get to meet new people,” Lisa Colburn, 49, said.

The Colburns took over as hosts last year from their elderly neighbors, Ed and Betty Carr, who no longer could hold the event because of health reasons.

“We’re sort of carrying on the tradition,” Lisa Colburn said, adding that they intended to do it again next year.

With original residents in the neighborhood getting older and moving away, younger couples are buying up homes on the street, the Colburns explained.

Lisa Colburn and her husband have lived at their 26 Mainewood Ave. home since they were married in 2001. Steven Colburn had rented a residence on the street for three years before that but never had attended one of the get-togethers.

“I knew a few people to say hi to but didn’t know too many people,” Colburn, 56, said. He liked the idea that Mainewood is a dead-end street in a quiet, friendly neighborhood and decided to settle there.

“For us, it was a neat way to meet people as well,” his wife said, adding that it’s hard to get to know others in the area when you don’t have children in the school system.

“There’s a lot of new families moving in with little ones,” she said.

“Originally there were scads of children on the street,” Margaret Radke, who has lived on Mainewood Avenue since 1955, said. “They all grew up and left, and now we’re getting a turnover because the older residents died or moved out.”

Heidi Clarke, her husband, and their two-year-old son, Henry, is one of those new, young families. They moved into their new home just last week, Heidi Clarke explained, adding that the family-like feeling of the neighborhood is a lot different than it was living in their former downtown Bangor apartment.

“We’ve never had that because we’ve been in an apartment and things are always changing,” she said.

Clarke also was impressed with the personal touch of the hand-delivered invitation the Colburns brought to her house announcing the party.