By Wally WachterRetired Herald Managing Editor
THE EXTRA-LONG WINTER SEASON and the inclemencies we have had to endure as it tapers off have delayed the annual spring fever.
In our school days, April always signaled the start of the home stretch. The last term of the school year began and we started to coast toward our dreams of summer vacation.
Teachers could never figure out if we were on the last legs of our winter doldrums or showing the first signs of spring fever.
Although the final exams were still to come _ the measuring sticks of whether or not we passed _ studying became burdensome. Our minds were on the outside. Our thoughts were on flying kites, playing baseball on corner lots and teasing girls by disrupting their hopscotch games on the sidewalks in front of their houses. We thought about roller skating and riding down the brick-paved streets on our homemade scooters. We contemplated evening walks, which coincidentally always seemed to take us past the homes of the little girls on whom we had crushes.
Even most poets conceded in their verses that these were all normal signs of spring.
The teachers also were smitten with ``the fever.'' Using a ploy that it was in the interest of our education, they would finagle the principals into letting them take us out on field trips.
The break from our routine classes always was appreciated. We took to the fields and woodlands, learning about budding wildflowers, gathering sassafras, being informed on how to spot poison ivy and poison oak and watching birds of all species build their homes.
We usually came home with spindly burrs and dark jaggers clinging to our trousers. We had to pick them out one by one before our mothers would allow us to enter our homes.
When we advanced to high school, the expectancy of graduation and the rash of activities connected with it helped neutralize our spring fever. There were proms, class days, wiener roasts, commencement practices and other things to take our minds off the grueling final exams that lay ahead.
Our dread of spending the fresh, outdoor spring days in stuffy schoolrooms was almost matched by what awaited us at home after school.
We had to attend to the usual spring chores. even while we were chafing at the bit to fly our kites, ride our scooters or disappear with our baseball bats. There were windows to wash, porch furniture to bring out of storage, the remnant of the previous autumn's leaves to rake and burn, gardens to help dig, fences and sheds to paint, lawn mowers to oil and sickles to sharpen.
The same mixed feelings about spring fever prevail today, but the remedies have changed with the times.
Field trips today are class excursions to Washington, D.C., New York City or other historical spots. The street fun we enjoyed when we were youngsters has been eliminated by traffic conditions that have made street football games or scooter rides too dangerous. Strings of overhead power lines and telephone and television cables make it almost futile to fly kites in town.
Afterschool chores have been lightened by power mowers, motorized garden tillers and other labor-saving devices. The brisk evening walks we enjoyed as teen-agers seem to have been replaced by automobile rides for today's driver's-licensed teens, many of whom have access to family cars.
Times and customs change with the passing years, but the glories and nostalgia of budding spring still make it one of our favorite seasons.