Spring 1946

It's mostly the longer days and the way that the shadows fall in the evening that let me know that it is Spring in this corner of the country. I remember how dramatic the transformation was in my Midwestern youth. The switch from Winter to Spring meant not only the chance to ditch heavy jackets and boots, but there was an entirely new and fecund essence to all outdoors. There was a smell and feel to the air that was as pronounced as that of a new car. Everything was fresh and nothing seemed impossible.

Baseball was back and girls in Summer dresses were mere days away.

Now, in my sixty-second year, it's hard to remember how good Spring used to be. Oh sure, I'm excited for a new year of baseball. The Padres have replaced the Tigers of my misspent youth. But, instead of days at the beach and nights at the drive-in, I now look at my "to do" list of projects for the yard and the house and it just not the same.

I was lamenting this lack of Springtime excitement as I lay awake the other night and got to thinking about my dad. It's funny how often I wonder about him these days. He has been gone for fifteen years yet is never far away. Maybe that "eternal life" so many folks are counting on consists of your ability to knock around in the noggins of family and friends. I don't know, but that logic makes more sense to me than any other.

Anyway...I began to wonder what the Spring of 1946 felt like to all the men and women of my parents generation. How magical must it have seemed to them to have survived a world war and been alive to see another Spring. Think of it! You plow through an economic depression only to be handed a catastrophic "war to end all wars" and for the better part of five long years have no idea how it is all going to end. "Will I live to see my family again?" "Will I have a family?" "Is my country going to survive?" How amazing that they persevered and came out the other side of a hell that most of us can only imagine.

No wonder most of them never talked much about how they spent 1940-45. They were just grateful to have the Spring of 1946 and all of its endless possibilities.

I think I'll start on that "to do" list of 2010 with thanks and appreciation for a generation that came before.