A quieter holiday celebration anywhere but the beach
Those inclined to avoid the crowds and traffic had a more low-key day
Groton — Several dozen people were there when the first notes of the national anthem began to drift through the quiet streets of Noank on Wednesday afternoon.
And they were almost all still there two hours later, when the Noank-Mystic Community Band ended its concert with a lively version of John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
On a hot, humid holiday when most of Connecticut’s state parks and beaches reached capacity and were closed by noon, those inclined to avoid the crowds and traffic had a more low-key day.
Most of the residents and visitors in the village of Noank gathered at the tiny beach and town dock at the end of Main Street, or in the nearby park where the band’s July 4 concert moved several years ago. The concert was moved because when it was held in the street, as one oboe player put it, “the chairs were sinking into the pavement.”
Other than the occasional bumble bee or straggler with a beach towel, the streets were empty Wednesday afternoon. It was a different scene than at any of the municipal or state beaches, where no parking spaces or umbrella spots were left unfilled.
By noon, more than a dozen state parks and beaches, including Gardner Lake in Salem and Rocky Neck Park in East Lyme, were closed to new vehicles because the parking lots were already full, state parks officials reported via their Twitter account.
In Noank, a single patron looked at paintings on the wall in the Noank Historical Society building, chatting with the volunteer manning the desk in a possible excuse to linger in the air conditioning.
There were no customers inside 15 minutes before Kerri Croteau closed up Carson’s Store restaurant next door to the park in Noank, but Croteau said the store had been busy all day.
“It’s a big day for ice cream and milkshakes,” she said. “And people have been enjoying the A/C.”
The only relief from the sun during the concert was to be found in the shade of the trees and playground equipment, so people positioned their chairs accordingly.
Betsy Murphy and May McFadden sat on matching lawn chairs feeding ice cream to a dog named Pablo; they said coming to the concert in the park was a tradition for their families.
The band members were under a tent for the first time in the decades-long history of the concert, but conductor Chris Howard said they would have hit their notes regardless of the temperature.
“We’re musicians,” Howard said. “We learn to play in all conditions.”
Ron Reeves, who put aside his baritone saxophone during the band’s intermission, improvised. After offering a cup of water to several of his bandmates, who declined, he shrugged, took off his plastic hat, and dumped the water down the back of his neck.