When I was in grade school, without a doubt spring was the best time of year. After months and months of dreary winter weather, mud and slush, we were finally able to take the bread sacks and snowmobile boots off our feet and wear our tennis shoes. No more coats, hats and watery wool mittens to weigh us down…. it felt like fashion freedom.
Donning T-shirts and jeans we rocked the playground at Birch Grove Elementary. It was a time for recess tag and putting our pale faces to the sun. If I had been the school principal, and not Mrs. Wegstein, I would have let the kids eat lunch outside. Mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy in May and Jell-O squares every day in June.
Soon the grass would be green and the dandelions would poke their bright yellow heads up and say hello. I loved spring flowers. I remember one time bringing a pack of forgetme nots to school and planting them in the soil below the classroom windows. I imagined them coming up in early June and everyone would wonder who planted them…. they were mowed down with the grass before they ever bloomed but it was the thought that counted, don’t you think?
My mom didn’t plant a lot of flowers around the house in spring; the season was just too short to justify the expense.
Now I start on Mother’s Day weekend and keep planting until my deck looks like a greenhouse. Double impatiens and cascading petunias are my go-to girls for lipstick reds and purples.
Springtime at Birch Grove also meant the science fair where sixth graders would show demonstrations of all they learned that year. There was usually a big to-do over who got to make the exploding volcano demonstration with vinegar and baking soda. This was the most impressive!
Colleen Lamb and I had to wow the crowd with our “count the rings in the tree slice to see how old it was” demonstration. Trust me it was not as thrilling as it sounds…but we earned a ribbon. Her mother was not impressed when we tried the same methodology on her pancakes one morning…we giggled as we decided the pancakes were at least five years old!
The sad thing about spring in northern Minnesota is quick and soon over. Blink and you miss it! So get out there and enjoy the days, they are numbered!
I wonder if there are any
other people or places
in the world that enjoy
a gorgeous spring day
more than a northern
Minnesotan after six
months of winter.
Northern girl
Stephanee Everson
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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