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Family Fun Night at The Town Grove

Family Fun Night at The Town Grove

Reagan O’Reillytakes on a 40-yard water slide.

Patrick L. Sullivan

LAKEVILLE — Free ice cream, a 40-yard water slide and a looming summer storm made for an eventful Family Fun Night at the Grove on Thursday, Aug. 6.

As dusk began to settle and people wrapped up their activities on Lake Wononscopomuc, an ice cream truck rolled in and parked near the Senior Center.

Recreation Director Lisa McAuliffe made the rounds, handing out tickets for free ice cream.

“This is my favorite part of the job,” she said after handing a fistful of tickets to a clamoring crowd of kids.

Kids line up at Doda’s Ice Cream Truck during Family Fun Night at the Town Grove on Thursday, Aug. 6. Patrick L. Sullivan

A water slide was set up on the gentle hill on the lake side of the Senior Center. Reagan O’Reilly asked if she could take a turn and, after getting the go-ahead, launched herself expertly on to the slippery surface, making it all the way to the end — a distance of about 40 yards.

The only potential spoiler was the weather. Large, dark clouds advanced slowly from the south and west as McAuliffe consulted the weather app on her phone.

“See all this activity?” she asked, pointing at the screen. “See this blue dot in the middle of it? We’re the blue dot.”

As if on cue, a few sprinkles began to fall. But that was about it, and Family Fun Night came to a successful conclusion.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.
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