Light Up the Lake

Arlington, Texas, sponsored its second annual “Light Up the Lake” event. It was so awful I don’t know where to begin. Podunk Junction, population 10,023, does a better Fourth of July.

The two bands I heard thought they had a choice between good and loud. They chose loud.

“Theater Arlington” put on a good show of kids performing nonstop Broadway show tunes. I could hear them, but not see them. This was the highlight of the evening.

The best vendor in the area was the United States Army that provided a “climbing wall.” My grandson finally decided to try it, but it was getting too dark and they were closing. Besides, he had to get his mother to sign a document. Our neighbor, a representative of another branch of the service, wondered if it was an enlistment, as soon as he turned 18. We had visions of them turning up on the morning of his birthday and hauling him out of bed. Surely, my daughter said, they would wait until high school graduation. “Not so,” my neighbor countered, “they would simply hand him a GED.”

The “Lighted Regatta” took place behind the portapotties invisible from the parking lot where the show was held.

About that parking lot – it featured a thin stagnant pool running through the middle, widening at one end to a proper mosquito breeding pond. I wondered if the city of Arlington was taking up a mosquito-breeding experiment. If so, I killed a few. I hope I didn’t ruin their data.

Kids on bicycles, kids on skateboards, kids on scooters, kids in tank-like strollers wove through the crowd. Some of those strollers should be registered as lethal weapons.

The whole thing was dismal and disorganized. We had to park miles away and take a shuttle bus to the staging area. We then had to walk a considerable distance, over ½ mile, to the park itself. The City of Arlington Parks employees raced through the crowd in green golf-cart-like vehicles called “Gators” doing what? I never saw them do anything, although they were supposed to provide shuttle service. I saw at least two people on crutches struggling to climb back up to the staging area to catch the buses. The City employee’s attitude seemed to be if you were stupid enough to come to this event, you deserved anything you got. Apparently (I heard) at the staging area for the buses, the crowd overflowed onto the lawns of the unfortunate home owners. I guess the City’s view is that they have 364 days of a wonderful place to live and one day of destruction – a fair trade.

The vendors were promised assistance in the form of shuttle rides from the city workers to retrieve their cars in order to pack up their booths. That never happened. Again, I heard the city employees were rather rude about it. The police advised the driver of a armed service recruiting vehicle that he couldn’t leave until the crowd departed so just “sit back and pop a cool one.” (Naming a particular brand of beer., no less.) City employees seem to view the citizens of Arlington as lower beings – stupid lower beings.

I’ve noticed this attitude on the part of the City employees before.

Most of the vendors I talked to won’t be back.

Now you know why when I was looking for a house I told the realtor “not in Arlington.”

Then there was the fireworks show. Which took place behind a streetlight and a row of trees. Most of the crowd did get to the lake shore to see this, I guess that they weren’t impressed. I even saw people walking away from the show. I don’t recall seeing so many people walk away from a fireworks show. They were the smart ones, though; they made it to the buses as soon as they started running again.

Oh, yes, “started running again.” Anyone who parked in the lots (more than five miles away) who wanted to leave early was just stuck. No way out, besides on foot. Did I mention that the parking lots were more than five miles away?

All in all, a mess. But hey, what can you expect? It’s Arlington.