A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
It was by no means your typical Fourth of July in Cloquet this year. And, really, why should it have been, after all we’ve gone through in the past three years? We went from no events in 2020 due to the threat of the pandemic to a limited event in 2021. This year, the weather was the menace, but it created a rarity: two days of events.
This was the first year of Fourth organizing by us here at the Pine Knot News, under contract with the city. Call us biased, and certainly exhausted, but we are proud of how things went despite a wet chilly Monday and the cancellation of the parade and later postponement of the movie and fireworks to Tuesday.
We rallied. The people who enjoy the event each year rallied as well. The stand-still parade — dreamed up overnight — on Tuesday evening was a unique hoot, and that we got the movie and fireworks off in drier but still chilly conditions was a thrill, as were the massive crowds. What’s a few layers compared to last year, when it was a steamy 95 degrees out, and the thought of doing much of anything was depleting in itself?
We did it. Albeit in a roundabout way. The Fifth of July celebration will live on in memories, for sure.
The city of Cloquet deserves a standing ovation for its role in Fourth. While the city doesn’t organize the event itself, police and parks staff are a huge part of pulling it off. The last-minute stand-still parade was a collaborative effort, made better and safer with input from police and parks. And by the time three committee members arrived at Veterans Memorial Park Wednesday morning to clean up — no other volunteers made it (ahem) — city crews had erased nearly all traces of the festivities.
For all those who were disgruntled to hear about the changes on Monday, we hope you were inspired by the rally on Tuesday and will consider stepping up to help next year.
Plans sometimes go awry, but it’s good to know that amends can be made. We hope you all had an enjoyable, quixotic holiday and bonus holiday this week.
See you next year.
