The 50th Quigg-Clair Block Party A USC Tradition Unlike Any Other Dave Bulger
A group gathering after a hard fought softball game between Quigg and Clair (circa 2011)
On Saturday July 3, 1971, a gallon of gas cost 40 cents, All in the Family was the most popular show on television, and the Pittsburgh Pirates were in first place in the National League East (and would win the World Series three months later). That same day, an Upper St. Clair neighborhood tradition was launched that has continued uninterrupted each year ever since. Remarkably, the annual Quigg Drive-Clair Drive Fourth of July block party will celebrate its 50th edition this summer. Friends and neighbors will enjoy the mid-summer classic, as they have since the Nixon administration, with both current and former residents descending on the confluence of Clair and Quigg Drives to celebrate Independence Day. The annual event brings together old and new friends who share the common bond of either living or having lived in what we affectionately refer to simply as “The Neighborhood.” It is a tradition unlike any other. While suburban neighborhoods are often transient, ours was unique in that the core foundation of families that moved in during the 1960s and ’70s remained there for decades and, in many cases, still live there. The neighborhood became unusually close-knit. Families not only watched their children grow up together, but also vacationed, played sports, celebrated holidays, and enjoyed other life events together. Longtime neighborhood families—Walton, Tomko, McKenzie, Thiros, Cullen, Blass, Giusti, Wilkins, Bulger, Valentino, Teller, Hawkins, Kennedy, Avick, Augenstein, Smith, Eannarino, Morelli, Kelly, Pfeffer, Christman, Dennison, Bauch, and Reichenbach—helped build the block party institution. Over time, other families—including Rowland, Hutchinson, Halackna, Busse, Zeh, Williams, Bernard, and Zadrozny—moved into the neighborhood in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s and embraced, added to, and carried on the event and its tradition. 16
UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
Summer 2020
It all began innocently as a one-day celebration of Independence Day with a bike parade, softball game, bingo, and pony rides. Old home movies and pictures from the early years show a lot of plaid pants, bell-bottoms, banana-seat bicycles, and side-burns. The Alexander and Siemens families were the original founders of the event and thought it a good way for the neighbors to socialize and celebrate the holiday together. Ironically, those two families both moved away just a few years later. Little did they know that they were starting a fire that would burn for 50 years. The party grew a little bigger each year, and as its popularity exploded during the ’70s, it soon became a three-day-and-night free-for-all, featuring kids’ games, a dunking machine, fire truck visit, dinner, bingo, square dancing, golf outing, volleyball, Simon Says contests, movies, Pirate Parrot visits, late-night table games, recovery breakfasts, and unofficial fireworks displays by Bobby Wilkins. And, throw in an adult beverage or two. Pure Americana! Perhaps no activity was more ridiculous or is as fondly remembered than the ’70s pie eating contests, which always quickly descended into mayhem with pie fights reminiscent of the Three Stooges. For a few years, a magic show was part of the festivities. However, that ended after the 1981 block party when the magician, who had partaken of a little too much holiday celebrating, stumbled off the porch that had served as his stage, and collapsed into the bushes. Instead of performing, he fell asleep. An annual grudge match softball game—Clair and Long Drives versus Quigg Drive—was a favorite part of the weekend for years, with yearlong bragging rights at stake. The annual classic matched two former Pirate teammates against one another,
