SPRING HAS SPRUNG

“Spring has sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where

The birdie is?”

Ah, I can feel spring in the air and that of course takes me back to the days when I was young and innocent.

While living in God’s kingdom, 1950’s Brooklyn, the arrival of spring always greeted me the same way, through the third story kitchen window. Mom would clean and open the window, and the warmer than winter air outside would enter, giving me a lift in both spirit and shoes, as I couldn’t wait to get outside as I got out of my suit, white shirt and blue tie.

The long wait for spring started when the last morsel of food was consumed on New Year’s Day, and we looked forwarded to the gloom and harshness of January and February. The oil lit stove, the cold freezing nights in bed, the morning torture of getting dressed in front of the stove and facing the cold iciness of the wind as we stepped out onto the street on our way to school would be over for another 9 months.

It seemed my nose and eyes would run and water, blinding me as my ears would start to numb where the ear popped out from the earmuffs, as we trudged off to the big house called Our Lady of Lourdes in Brooklyn.

I remember having a gabardine suit, as the days got warmer and I sat in the classroom, the steam heat still playing out of the cast iron pipes, my legs sweating because the material was so heavy. The teacher would open all the large windows half way up, and my having an urge to run to one of them and sticking my head out to cool off.

Actually this is college

Then one day while in high school, on an early March day, the weather started to warm up early that year. I was working for a local farmer, weeding and picking strawberries, for 10 cents a row, and making a little money. The day was nice and I sat in study hall, when all of a sudden I had a fever and was laying my head down on the long table in the cafeteria feeling very ill. I was sent home and went straight to bed, where my bedroom window was wide open and mom was doing some spring-cleaning.

Lying on my bed, my toes were sticking out from under the covers and I felt this itchy welt on my toe. Looking at it I thought how strange it was for a mosquito to be flying around at that time of the year! Searching for the bug I get another, so I close the window and start looking in earnest. By now my body is filled with these welts and are itching like crazy! Off I go to the doctor to find out I had the hives from picking strawberries! Welcome spring.