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Someone walking down Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park on a recent Sunday may have heard clanging cutlery interspersed with joyful chatter emanating from Rosefield and Hermosa ways.
Since 1976, residents of the horseshoe-shaped block have gathered annually to share food, outdoor activities and each other’s company. They also like to bang pots and pans.
While the block party began 50 years ago, a community was already in the making. The group of “30-somethings” who had moved to the neighborhood between the late 1960s and early ’70s began to socialize through their young kids, former longtime resident Bob Scheidtmann said.
“There was something in the water,” quipped Skip Bushee, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1978.
Scheidtmann, who moved to the Hermosa-Rosefield block with his wife Debbie in 1972, said the nation’s bicentennial in 1976 presented the perfect opportunity to hold a block party. The couple, who moved to Bend, Oregon, in 2017, returned for the party’s 50th anniversary on Aug. 2.
Neighbors gather and bang pots with utensils during an opening ceremony for an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan. 
A child plays badminton during an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan. 
People gather for an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan.
The day of the first block party was a scorcher.
“It was maybe 106 that day,” Scheidtmann said.
“104,” Debbie Scheidtmann said.
“Excuse me,” her husband said as a circle of original residents sitting in plastic chairs outside one of their houses on Rosefield Way laughed, “my wife corrects me.”
“It was 110,” exclaimed Bushee, who was not there.
Regardless of the exact temperature, Bob Scheidtmann said the sweltering heat caused the decal on his daughters’ bicycle seat to come off and stick to her shorts when she stood up.
Previous iterations of the block party included trivia about their neighbors, and one year there was a banjo band.
This year, following a rendition of the national anthem played by a young resident on his trombone, the partiers paraded around the block banging pots and pans.
Nora Singer, who led the parade donning a wide-brimmed straw hat adorned with flowers, said the tradition started during the pandemic, a practice that gained national popularity as a way to honor healthcare workers on the front lines. At the height of the lockdown in 2020, residents would bang kitchen utensils every night at 7 p.m. When people felt more comfortable seeing each other, they did a parade around the block on Thursdays, Singer said. The ritual stuck.
The horseshoe block has always been an enclave of generosity, according to residents.
A child sitting on a person’s shoulders looks toward the camera during an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan. 
Neighbors talk at the food table during an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan. 
Neighbors hold each other’s arms and talk following an opening ceremony for an annual block party on Hermosa Way in Menlo Park on Aug. 2, 2026. Photo by Michael Molcsan.
“Everybody shares everything,” said Joan Hamilton.
She pointed to a plum tree across the street. “When it comes into bloom, we’ll get an email, and they’ll say, ‘Okay, the plums are in. I got a big basket on my front porch, come help yourself,’” Hamilton, who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years, said.
Homegrown produce is not the only thing residents share. Sometimes, Norm Abt said, he would come home from work to find four or five kids in his pool, “none of them mine.”
And when a Tesla charging box caught on fire six years ago at a house on Hermosa Way, neighbors came rushing to rescue belongings from the garage before firefighters arrived, said Brett Herr.
Residents attribute the neighborhood’s closeness to its shape.
“It’s the horseshoe that we have (that) allows us to mingle really easily, and all the kids get to know each other,” said Susan Wertz. She and her husband Randy have lived on the Hermosa Way side of the block since 1987.
Even as people have moved away and the original one-story houses have gotten taller, the neighborhood remains close-knit.
“We didn’t buy this house to say we’re gonna be there for 50 years,” Karla Taylor said. “But you don’t want to leave,” she added, laughing.
Editor’s note: The spelling of Skip Bushee’s last name was corrected.
