Every year for the last eleven years, my family has hosted a themed musical evening for the lake’s small community with topics ranging from drinking songs to seventies hits, usually hosted in a cabin. This year, the attendance of about sixty people required the venue to be outdoors and on the water. We were lucky to have good weather–if we hadn’t, COVID might have put paid to the event, which has become synonymous with the end of summer.

On the dock, the empty chairs that typically hold audience members in cheek-by-jowl rows are necessarily distanced if not quite enough to be considered social distancing.  Singers agreed to wear masks when not performing. The slight chill, usually avoidable due to venue, was combatted by all with layers of clothing and blankets. There was a conscious choice among the singers to wear pajamas–given the theme of places we could no longer travel to, it only made (somewhat humorous) sense.

While this is something more positive than many outcomes of COVID for most, it shows the strength of this community that we were able to continue such a frivolous event thrown more for the social benefit of those attending than to any real purpose. It is something many on the lake have become used to and more reassuring in its occurring at such a time than if it had been canceled due to circumstances, which was the expectation for many.

In spite of added distance away from our audience and their distance from each other, the community enjoyed the performance in all its admittedly unpolished and entertaining glory, enabling the summer to end in a way that (at least for me) let all involved know that even if normal isn’t going to be the same, there are some things that can maintain a certain level of normality.