On the first day of spring we watched a man in blue suspenders standing in a bed of pink azaleas roll brown paint on The Old Homestead, the house Rufus and Karen Ward are restoring next to the Episcopal Church. We smiled as a young man in a white shirt on the upper deck of the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau double-decker bus trimmed limbs from trees in front of Kyle and Elaine Conner’s home on South Third Street so they won’t thrash tourists who will be cruising our streets next week during Pilgrimage.
On the first day of spring we watched two dozen Mennonite children in a field of clover on a country road east of Macon catch baseballs hit to them by two of their classmates. Lovely and straight as new willows, young girls with blond braids, long dresses and baseball gloves leaped for fly balls in the muted light.
On the first day of spring we waved to city work crews grooming the entranceway to the city, readying it for visitors. We watched a man in dirty overalls buying sweet corn seed at a nursery in Macon and an off-duty nurse in scrubs buying marigolds at one in Columbus. We noticed for the first time a majestic evergreen swathed in wisteria behind Watkins One-Stop.
On the first day of spring we arrived home to find our children, a parent’s gift to the world, waiting for us.
On the night of the first day of spring the rains came and washed away the pollen.
Blessed be to God for the first day of spring.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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