It's a drive-in theater without the cars.

        Just before 8 p.m., a group of children begins to gather in the front yard of Floyd Spencer's North Fairmount apartment building. A boy lugs a kitchen chair from across the street.

        Another boy brings a blanket and pillow.

        “Mr. Spencer can we come over and watch the movie?” asks another youngster.

        The answer is always “yes.” The 66-year-old father of eight is a grandfather figure to many children in Fay Apartments, and they gravitate to his door.

        In the yard, two of Mr. Spencer's children - 25-year-old daughter, Alia, , and son, David, 28, - are busy setting up the video projector and movie screen.

        When The Lion King II begins showing on the screen, the audience numbers eight and all are enraptured.“The kids really enjoy coming out here,” says Bob Neel. His youngsters - including 4-year-old Tyler -- often gather in front of the movie screen.

        “He loves to come over,” Kamona Luck, 26, says of her 7-year-old son, Monair. “Mr. Spencer is a community man. “He's the only one that takes the time to be with the kids.”

        The chill in the night air prompts some of the children to pull up a blanket but it doesn't interfere with their enjoyment.

        “It's a labor of love,” says Mr. Spencer as he watches over the children, some of whom helped his daughter Alia plant flowers in front yards of apartments on Sunnyhill Drive. “When we first started doing it, one woman in the neighborhood donated food.”

        Other neighborhood projects Mr. Spencer, a self-employed commercial painting contractor, and his family have initiated include:

        Free back-to-school haircuts for neighborhood boys. Two of Mr. Spencer's sons do the barbering.

        Free reading and physical fitness instruction provided by daughter, Alia.

        Patching potholes in the street on their block. “They (his neighbors) thought the city did it,” says Mr. Spencer.

        Providing swimming pools in their front yards for the kids to beat the summer heat.

        “My dad says what you want for yourself you want for your neighbors,” Alia Spencer, 26, a University of Cincinnati student, says of her father. “ I want it (the neighborhood) to be pretty and I want it to be safe.”

        “This is the best street up here,” Mr. Spencer, a 30-year Fay Apartments resident, says proudly. “It's the only street up here where there's no (broken) glass and no litter in the street. This could be Anywhere USA. I call it a townhouse community.”

        Says neighbor Will Walton Jr., 28: “I can say this is the best street in the Fay Apartments. He's (Mr. Spencer) keeping it looking good.”

        Mr. Spencer says his good neighbor philosophy is not complicated.

        “My whole motivation is to bring some love and respect, neighbor-to-neighbor, in the community,” he says. “A good neighbor just does things and can be called upon when needed and helps make the community a better place to live. Be an example. See things wrong and, instead of getting a committee to do things, you just go out and do it and hope it's duplicated by others or they join in and help you.You lead by example. That's the good neighbor way.”

        If you have a suggestion for Night Watch, call William A. Weathers at 768-8390; fax 768-8340; e-mail bweathersenquirer.com

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