Hindsight

With the changing of the seasons we also change. We change our wardrobe,our schedules and for most of us our attitudes. We prepare for the season. Depending upon your location and lifestyle these changes and preparations can be drastic or subtle. They have also changed over the years.

I was thinking about this and remembering. When I was young and living on Long Island many men would be caulking their boats this time of year. The boats were mostly wooden so that task was necessary. I expect that is getting to be a lost art nowadays. I remember Dads boat sitting in the yard on stilts. You have to take the boat off the trailer to caulk her up proper. Scraping and painting ,at least the bottom, followed that operation. I can't imagine what warnings would be on those cans of bottom paint now. It was good stuff but I'm sure by today's standards quite toxic.

Just about this time of year we would be taking down the storm windows and putting in the screens. Another ritual mostly gone. When I was real little Mom would take the throw rugs outside and beat them. That was part of spring cleaning. She would get help and take the area rugs out too. Hang them over the clothesline, or if too heavy for that, the fence. She had a rug beater and would give them a good thrashing. Mom said before vacuum cleaners they used to do that all the time. Now that is spring cleaning !

As for me I would be looking for my fishing pole. I know I had several but over the winter they would try to hide. I always found them, sometimes hiding with the clam rake. You had to blow up your inner tube and check for leaks. Seems every year at least one patch got added. For those of you that may not know, you need the inner tube to float your clam basket. I'd tie that tube to my waist while clamming, everyone did. That's how it's done.

The bicycle was rounded up and got ready. Check the tires and grease the chain at least. It had sat under the tree all winter. We didn't have a garage. And that was about it for my spring preparations. We didn't have air conditioning so the windows pretty much stayed open until the fall. Listening to the whip or wills and tree frogs at night became the norm. I could hear an occasional car or truck passing in the night but that was unusual. We didn't live close to the main road. 

All that has changed. No boat,no clam rake, storm windows are aluminum and the carpets are wall to wall. Have air conditioning so the windows pretty much stay closed. I live close to the main drag and hear trucks and cars all the time. I don't have to mow the grass anymore, I live in an apartment. 

Yes things have changed but as the kids today say, It's all good. I'm still grateful for the changing of the seasons. Some chores I don't miss at all. Scraping the bottom of a boat is not fun. Go with the flow I always say. Hindsight, they say, is twenty twenty, but often it is also distorted just a bit. I long for some of the old ways and things but they ain't all I remember them to be either. If I think and remember hard enough and am honest about it, it wasn't that much fun !