Cold, gloomy Labor Day caps off COVID-19 summer of 2020

Minnesotans are normally gathered together, if not at the Minnesota State Fair, then likely at a backyard barbecue, bidding farewell to summer.

But not this year.

Fifty-degree temperatures, a global pandemic and an unorthodox start to school has made the Labor Day holiday feel unlike anything Minnesotans have experienced before.

“It’s just… weird. It’s been long but it just seems wrong almost, just the way it unfolded and the way people had to adapt, and it’s just unfortunate but it is what it is,” said Austin Autio, who took the boat out one last time on Wayzata Bay before the rain started Monday afternoon.

The gloomy weather seemed fitting to cap off the end to summer, Autio said.

Summer in Minnesota has gone on without all the normal festivities — fairs, festivals, concerts and virtually anything that draws a crowd were all canceled due to concerns over COVID-19.

That includes the biggest of them all: the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

“The State Fair is one of my favorite things of the summer. It kind of gives you that closure,” he said.

In any other year, Labor Day would also be sort of a last hurray for kids headed back to school. But that’s not the case for many children across the state and country.

“School starts tomorrow, but they’re not going. So, it’s just a freezing cold Labor Day before not going back to school,” joked Sara Broghamer, who will be helping her two children learn virtually beginning on Tuesday.

All in all, Broghamer believes the kids have taken the adjustments in stride.

“I think they think this was the fun year. We are all home, all day, every day, together; it’s great for them,” she said.