A winter’s day
By Bill Shepard
I am sitting at my table this morning, pen in hand, and looking through my window at the world outside.
The sun is already showing its face above the tree lines and I am thinking what a beautiful day it is.
The squirrels are leaping from tree limb to tree limb and I am thinking, “They are engaged in a game of chase.”
I am reminded of playing that game often when I was a boy.
We didn’t have a lot of things to entertain us, no television, smartphones, computers, etc., so we made our own entertainment.
We would gather in the open field behind the house where I lived and choose sides.
After a given amount of time in which to separate, the chase would be on, one side trying to tag the members of the other side.
Hours would be spent before the game ended. Sound like fun?
There were other games we made up, all in our way of having fun. In the springtime we made our kites and spent hours sailing them in the open fields and pastures near the village.
As springtime changed to early summer, we engaged in marble playing.
Ah, the stories I recall about playing marbles.
Yes, we made our own, and spent hours on our knees at the games.
I have written about the games we played in those “good old days” so many times that I am reluctant to go on! I suppose it is the beautiful day that has broken outside that has one in the mood I am in.
Honest, I just saw a small wren hopping along my deck outside. Reckon that birds are experiencing some of my feelings?
It would not take many days like this one and the early blooming bulbs would be poking their heads through the earth! It could happen, but we all know the result of them doing so! I suppose I am just trying to stay with this wishful thinking attitude!
In my article “Roses in December,” recently printed in this paper, I was recalling an experience that happened many years ago when I was a young man and employed at the Post Office in Darlington as a substitute mail carrier.
One day while delivering mail along West Broad Street, I approached one of my houses, and there on her knees in the front yard, I saw a little old lady digging in the soil.
It was a winter’s day but the sun was shining brightly, much like today.
I passed to put her mail in the box on her porch, but I spoke as I went by. “Don’t you know it is still wintertime and too early to be planting flowers?”
She paused for a second and then spoke the words I never forgot. “If you want flowers in the springtime, you plant the bulbs in the winter.”
I have experienced many winters since that day and from time to time, my mind takes me back to that day long ago, when I heard those words for the first time.
So here I sit with pen in hand and with determination to stay in a positive mood this beautiful day!
The sun is shining, the squirrels are playing, the birds are hopping and chirping and this old man is reliving some long-ago memories.
There really isn’t anything new about that!
