However, the reality is that the camaraderie that develops between people who live just across the street often stays within a street.

That closeness can last for decades.

Witness Albert Street, tucked away on Marquette’s east side. On July 5, current and past residents of that small street gathered for a social media-generated reunion, drawing in people from in town as well as all over the United States.

One of those former residents who helped spearhead the reunion was Tony Erspamer, who lives on nearby Prospect Street and keeps in touch with a woman who still lives on Albert.

T-shirts spell the name of the street that was the scene for a July 5 reunion. Some Albert Street residents hadn’t seen their former neighbors in decades. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

“We Facebook,” Erspamer said. “And she said, ‘You know what? It’s about due time we had a reunion before all our parents start passing away and everything.’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it.'”

Erspamer lived at 311 Albert, four houses down from the site of the reunion at 411 Albert.

“We haven’t seen each other in maybe 40 years, a lot of these people,” Erspamer said.

Erspamer said the Fourth of July holiday was a big Albert Street event back in the day, although the residents didn’t worry about getting permission about blocking off the street.

“We didn’t talk to the city,” Erspamer said.

There would be parties, wheelbarrow races and balloon tossing. At other times of the years, they’d play hockey on the street or kickball.

Those are typical neighborhood fun-time pursuits, but the Albert Street also could make short jaunts to places like the downtown area or Lakeview Arena.

The Albert Street aura, though, went beyond mere kids’ games.

“The memories of this little block — everybody took care of each other,” Erspamer said. “Every house had three to five to six kids. In that day, you didn’t have to really worry about your children.”

They also apparently didn’t have to worry about walking up to a house with unfriendly inhabitants or people who didn’t have children.

“You could go any house, basically,” Erspamer said.

Kay Chiconsky recalled having marathon card games.

“We had beauty pageants,” Chiconsky said. “We couldn’t wait to get out of the house and play. None of us wanted to go in.”

She even liked the Albert Street neighborhood to the fictional Mayberry featured in “The Andy Griffith Show.”

However, it was a different world four decades ago, one that was more removed from today’s helicopter parents. Erspamer said parents then allowed their kids some freedom.

“But there was a discipline,” Erspamer said.

In a physical sense, Marquette has changed over the decades.

One of those changes was the Albert Street youngsters’ trip to Lake Superior.

“When we walked down to the beach, there was no Coco’s restaurant,” Erspamer said. “There were no apartments. It was forest, trees.”

One of the notable landmarks back then was Blueberry Hill, which Erspamer said was located where the now-closed Coco’s stood.

“It was a beautiful little hill with blueberries, and then it went down in a little hole, and there was a big oak tree,” Erspamer said.

It was that sort of setting that neighborhood kids could appreciate, a geographical nook they named themselves.

Reunion attendees came from places like California, Las Vegas, Virginia and Florida. They gathered to talk, laugh, share memories, eat — and look at an Albert Street banner made from T-shirts.

Lizzie Sleeman, of Santa Barbara, California, has been a regular visitor to the area.

“I come back every year because this is where I grew up,” Sleeman said. “I didn’t grow up on Albert, but I grew up right at the end of the street on Pine Street.”

She recalled playing kickball and the old youthful standby, hide-and-go-seek.

She and her playmates would walk down to the beach, which they called “‘going straight down” to Lake Superior because it was a direct route to travel to the Big Lake.

“Just kids, little kids, by ourselves,” Sleeman said.

Will they have another reunion?

“Oh, definitely,” Tony Erspamer said.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.