Like the typical weekend in Lake Wobegone, the just passed second weekend in July was quiet.
In the past, this was Watercade week. The community was alive with musical units, visiting and local queens, kiddie parades, fireworks over Ripley, a traditional water ski show on the lake, and that “grande” parade attracting thousands.
I road around the lake Friday night. The campground to the east was filled, but at about dusk, a lone fisherman plied his pastime, and a lone water skier ruffled the calm surface of the lake.
The shoreline, except for the campground, was barren of people.
In Central Park on Saturday afternoon — where hundreds would have been strolling among displays in a holiday atmosphere — a nonagenarian like me could have found a quiet bench and fell into an undisturbed sleep.
Over at the Meeker County Family Services Building auditorium, usually alive with the glitter and glamour of the coronation event, darkness fell quietly Sunday night.
The only vestige of a normal Watercade weekend around town that I know of was that multi-team softball tourney in the northeast part of town.
There was almost something satisfying and reassuring the way all elements of our town always pulled together to make Watercade the perennial success it was.
Yes, the sun went down Sunday night on an atypical quiet second weekend of July in Litchfield — the first time those days were so quiet in over half a century.
Here’s hoping another half century passes before such a scenario repeats itself.
Copyright 2020 Litchfield Independent Review/Crow River Media/Media News Group.