Spring has sprung

April is a month of excitement and appreciation. I'll admit that it doesn't take as much to get me excited these days as it did a few years back. But if you go even further back to the prehistoric times of my life when I was quite young, almost anything could get me excited.

I would love to ride in the car with Papa as he drove around Vernon County checking on business things. I would get especially excited when he would patronize at least one of the country stores or one in Nevada to get a treat to eat. I remember a saspirilla drink he bought for me in Moundville once. I didn't really like it all that much but I knew better than to tell him so.

If we stopped in Nevada, Wardin's Drug Store was the favorite place for a treat. In later years he would go into Vieth's Café for a piece of pie. That was in the years when I was too busy with the kids and house to get very excited about a piece of pie. But, when he invited the whole family to eat with him and Mama in the Blue Room of the Mitchell Hotel, then I would really get excited.

But, back to April and its excitement. Each flower that bursts open, or pushes up from the ground, is cause for at least a smile. If it was one we feared was killed during the ice storm the signs of life will bring forth quite a celebration.

April Fool's Day has passed and I spent it with some of our family, which is a treat. It is a treat because I love to catch family members in an "April Fool" trick. The old ones such as, "there's a hole in your pants" don't work anymore. I need to get more inventive. I won't give away any of the tricks I used this year because I may try them on some of you sometime.

This year the important thing about April is Easter.

The message of the day, plus the happy expressions on each persons face, are reasons for excitement. On top of that, there is the fun of the children as they experience egg hunts and their Easter baskets.

After my sister Kathryn married and moved to the suburbs of New York City, my sister Ellen and I would spend our Easter holiday with Kathryn and Dudley. We got to experience going to shows on Broadway, visiting the Empire State Building and eating in foreign restaurants. Dudley always got upset with me because no matter where we ate, I would order roast beef. He said, "Carolyn you have eaten roast beef at your mother's table every Sunday of your life. Now is the time to try something new." I guess that was the beginning of my squeamish stomach because I preferred sticking to something I knew wouldn't upset me. It was exciting enough to see the decorations, the waiters and smell the foreign foods. I didn't think I actually needed to eat them too! In the past, April has been a month of floods, and it has been a dry month.

Either way there have always been some welcome surprises.

The excitement of new life with birds, kittens, puppies, calves and other animal babies makes us all feel young again.

One of the nicest things about April now is that it gives me an excuse to sit outside and just look around. That's enough excitement for me this spring.