Sixty-Something: Less Than a Month Until Spring 2022

All over the local internet, there have been comments about February’s weather. One day it was mild for this time of year. Then literally the next day it snowed a few inches only to be followed by extremely high winds with rain. East End Long Island weather is like that.

Yes, the older you get, the more you feel and take notice of the importance of the four seasons within the circle of life. Spring arrives on March 20, this year. That is less than one month from now. As you age you don’t want precious time to speed by since there are only so many days and years in a life. However, it is tough to enjoy extremely cold and windy days at the end of winter.

My wife likes to say in every month there are a few days of the previous month’s typical weather and a few days of next month’s weather. Late February is always the classic example. One day of the week may reach in the low sixties while two days later it may snow and hang in the mid-twenties! Pre-Covid 19, we used to travel to a warm spot for a week. Then while hanging out on a Caribbean or Mexican beach we would enjoy knowing Spring was just around the corner. Last year very few people booked trips due to the extreme Covid situation. This year it seems folks are heading to warm spots again.

Living in Montauk really accentuated this point because when the weather is wicked in Montauk it’s brutal. Yet, when the weather is pleasant with low wind, Montauk is a great place to be. With Spring just around the corner, it is time for me to get short pants and sweatshirts cleaned and ready to be worn.
I remember being back in college at GWU in Washington. Late in February my freshman year (1972) while living on campus, a first high sixty-degree Saturday surprisingly came along. Back then, with no internet, weather forecasting wasn’t what it is today. That Saturday after realizing a warm weather day was at hand many frisbees were flying in the quad behind Corcoran Hall.

Somehow, very new songs like “Layla” and “Maggie May” were blasting out loud to be heard by everyone. Slowly the quad filled up with students wearing shorts and tee-shirts, some students even less. It felt like midsummer. Nobody was in the old Library, almost everyone was in that small quad. Oh, yes that first Spring like day during all our school years was always special.

If you drive the backcountry farm roads of the east end you will now notice activity on the farms. It’s time for the farmers to get ready to tend to the fields. Most east enders enjoy watching the fields being planted and over the summer coming into maturity with tall corn crops. What’s coming soon will be the strawberry fields. I always enjoy watching families pick their own strawberries from the fields on Route 27 between Southampton and Bridgehampton. I remember picking strawberries as a child and later in life, watching my children pick them.

A favorite thing about Spring must be watching the area come back to life via plants and flowers. There is a hibernation wakeup. Daffodil shoots are usually first, followed by tulips and unfortunately, for us who cut our own lawns, the grass starts to grow again. The Spring cleanup is still a few weeks away, but suddenly out of the dreariness of winter, the longer days seem to expose where a big-time Spring clean-up is needed.

All this good stuff is right around the corner, calendar-wise. Although we live in the now, come late winter we are ready for warmer tomorrows. As a matter of fact, it’s time for me to go purchase my summer beach sticker and get the bottom of my sailboat painted. Spring is in the air, please go away winter, we’ve had enough snow already.