WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | SUMMER 2021 67
On Fridays when the weather is nice,
Harriett Allen sends out the bat signal
to the neighborhood using the Lomond
Association Facebook page: “Looks like
nice weather tonight! Who wants to meet
up at Gridley for dinner?”
Over the past two years, this
impromptu neighborhood gathering
at Gridley Triangle in the Lomond
neighborhood has become a tradition.
Anyone from the neighborhood, or from
anywhere really, is welcome. Sometimes
a dozen or more neighbors gather in the
park, which is dotted with picnic tables
and benches, streetlamps, a Little Free
Library, and appropriately enough, a bat
house that Harriett purchased and the
City installed. When it first started, says
Harriett, “a couple of times it was just me
and the squirrels.”
How did this all get started?
“It’s a funny story,” Harriett says.
“I live on the first hill of the Appalachian
Mountains at the corner of Sherrington
and Glencairn. I’ve been in this house 56
years. Well, I sit in my window seat and I
see people coming home from the Rapid.
I’m projecting: ‘Oh, they’re all alone.
They’re probably going home to have dinner
by themselves after a long week. That’s so
sad. Wouldn’t it be nice for everyone if we
could have dinner together?
“In reality,” she tells me, “I know they’re probably thrilled to go home after a long
week and maybe they just want to have dinner on their own.” But the turnout indicates
she was on to something.
Neighbors Lynn Lilly and Frank Goforth are staunch regulars. So are Madelaine
Matej MacQueen and her husband James, along with their baby, Eleanor, who was born
two weeks before the pandemic shut down the world.
“We were so happy we could bring her to the Gridley dinners for some social
interaction,” Madelaine says. They’ve since moved to University Heights but come back
whenever they can for Fridays al fresco. Christopher and Rachel Ruthenbeck, purveyors
of Hippie Chick Noms homemade granola, also join in the fun from time to time.
Wynn Shafer comes every week with her dog, Pucci, who enjoys the socializing as
well as the occasional handout. “She doesn’t know the days of the week, so she will often
take me over to the park on her evening walk expecting to find her friends,” says her
owner. “I’ve explained to her that we only meet on Fridays, but she’s ever hopeful.”
It’s a pretty casual affair; it’s not even really a potluck. For the most part, people just
bring their own dinners or a snack and a beverage. “But I’m a Jewish mother, so I want to
feed everyone,” says Harriett, who has been known to bring cookies to share.
Harriett’s grown children, Steve Weitzner and Wendy Weitzner Wasman, live in
Shaker and raised their kids here, so she doesn’t lack for family. But something about
these get-togethers creates another kind of connection she values just as deeply.
“It’s so fun because it’s a community,” says Harriett. “We share our stories about our
trips, like when Lynn and Frank went to China. Mostly people share funny things that
happened to them that week. And when a neighbor died earlier this year, we were able to
get together and soothe one another.”
Says Lynn, “Friday nights at Gridley are the first thing we put on our calendar every
summer. In fact, at our house, we call it Dinner with Harriett. We eat, we laugh, we
connect – we were strangers who have become friends.”
So, if it’s Friday night and the weather is pleasant, get over to Gridley to make some
new friends. And pack a few treats for Pucci, please. SL
Scene
in Shaker
Dinner
with
Harriett
By Jennifer Proe
Harriett Allen
and friend
at the Gridley
picnic.
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