I am sure they had the door open. Garage parties are what hit me when I read the article.
I live in a nice middle-class neighborhood. Retired folks and young couples predominate. We just had a family move in with a pit bull and loud music from a garage party they seen to have about once a week.
They started out today, with their garage open getting ready for work at 5:30 playing music I can hear two houses down.
That is the bigger sense of cultural difference. The type that impacts others at 5:45 AM.
Good point. Sitting around in the garage is very common in my neighborhood, but activities involving crowds and/or loud music had better be only once a year or so. My aunt lives in a condo complex in Orange County, CA, and I think a pig-pickin' in the garage would go over badly with the neighbors, regardless of anyone's age or ethnicity.
Brings back memories of my Navy days. There was a good ol' country boy machinist's mate aboard my ship who was an early riser. He'd set up his coffee in the machine shop two decks below our berthing compartment and proceed to blast "Wabash Cannonball" so loud you'd have thought it was coming from the next rack! Bad enough, but at 0500 hours? I hated that song for 20 years thereafter.
Of course, now it's nostalgia from half-a-hundred years ago and brings a little smile!