Show High Bigl Time TillIe Spring Is Coming BITTNER B By FLORENCE Spring is coming Im I'm not committing myself to dates but eventually well we'll have doesn't spring provided it leap hp right into summer asit as asit asit it has been known to do in our valley WHEN THE weather warms we open doors and windows let the inside out and the outside into pur our lives Our winter isolation ends and suddenly we find we have neighbors who do dp more than get out of their cars and duck into their houses With open doors and windows windows windows win win- dows the sounds of spring come in and they are lazy sounds associated with hours i lying Y ing on the grass making pictures in the clouds I DONT DON'T know when I last loafed and watched a cloud The loss is mine because the clouds dont don't care For that matter I dont don't know when I last listened to the sounds of spring and summer Its It's been a long time and andI I f suddenly realize the sounds have chang changed since that long ago when I had time for lying on lawns and daydream daydream- ing USED TO be I knew when Dad got home He always tooted the horn twice to let Mother know it was time to get the table set none of your musical flutes Just a plain businesslike business business- like He had to honk the horn because he always coasted up to the house He shifted into neutral when he turned off Main street and let it roll to an easy stop in front of our house Figured hed he'd saved a good many gallons of gas letting the car coast those three blocks SOMETIMES while I wa waS watching the clouds Id I'd hear r the squeak of a wagon axle and I knew it was Charlie Walton taking another load of hay into his barn His team of big grey horses plodded up the street occasionally shaking their heads to dislodge the flies That jingle of harness harness harness har har- ness is another summer sound I miss Charlie Walton used to say he worked all summer getting in enough hay to feed his team during the win winter er so he would have them to get in inthe the hay next summer The hay also fed his six big black and white while cows and several sheep He had one c cow w Old Maude biggest cow I ever saw and with an udder to match WE KIDS us used d to tell each other how many gallons of milk Old Maude gave and every time we told it Old Maudes Maude's reputation gained Walton Waltons sold milk to the grocery grocery grocery gro gro- cery store but when our cow all complained went dry we till she freshened again because because because be be- cause we liked Jersey milk We all said Holstein milk tasted cowey Sometimes lying on the grass Id I'd hear mother pick pickup up the phone an and cill Nettie She was on our line so mother could ring her direct I KNEW before she said a ai i word who Mother was calling because Id I'd count the Whirr when she cranked the th phone handle We were two longs and two short rings Andersons were one long and one short I could tell when Mother started dinner because the first thing she did was lift the e stove lid and stir up the tire fire When I heard her lift the lid I got ot ready to duck in case the was empty Didn't matter whose turn it was to get in the wood in an emergency it was whoever she could find got drafted IF I FIGURED the was empty empt sometimes Id I'd take the family bike and ride downtown downtown down down- town to get the mail Dad would have picked it up but that didn't matter A summer day wasn't complete unless it included a visit to the post- post office On the way downtown Id I'd pass the blacksmith shop where I loved to stop a mine minute min ute to watch the angry red of the steel if Mr Perkins was sharpening a plow and the sparks that flew when he laid the hot steel on the anvil anvil anvil an an- vil and hammered That ringing ringing ringing ring ring- ing of steel on steel is another another another an an- other sound I J never hear any more OR TilE THE sound of a blacksmith black smith filing a horses horse's hoof to put on a new shoe My children didn't know until I told them the other day that horses have to have their hoofs trimmed like we need our toenails taken care of How would they know They know very few blacksmiths I J dont don't know whether this will be the summer I finally get caught up enough to do a little cloud watching but theres there's one sound I dont don't expect expert ex pert to hear The whir of ol hand powered grass cutters AND IT hasn't been verb verj long since Mr B. B and I scoffer at the people who thought the needed a power mower on a little city plot of grass It may be a ll luxury but I sure hope ours gets fixed before that grass gets much longer I dont don't want my huffing and puffing to be one of the sounds of summer |