THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280257
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
This is the third first-day-of-spring column to appear this year.
Truth is, spring arrives by inches.
Nature's striptease.
No, that doesn't fit, does it?
Spring is putting on, not taking off, clothes.
There is allure in watching a careful, minute-by-minute, article-by-article dressing, right up to the putting on of the perky hat, a simple shallow little basket of a hat on the back of her head.
And then an appraising glance in the mirror at her outfit, and a sigh that the ritual is done, a striptease in reverse.
And so she turns fully attired, smiling, ready to go.
If the old Gaiety Theater were still active on East Main Street in Norfolk, that would make an interesting, even startling, apparition for the shocked audience if a gal walked on stage and began putting clothes on.
Why didn't somebody think of that?
Cause a riot, it would.
Celebrated ever after in vaudeville lore:
``So there we were sitting down front and Rose La Rose comes out and begins putting on her clothes. Can you believe it?
``Then, at the end, she does a tap dance, fully dressed - and LEAVES!
``I'll never forget it.''
That's what spring is doing for us.
Thursday evening, I returned home and found a line of 3-foot-high King Alfred daffodils marching boldly down the driveway border, raising yellow trumpets to the sky.
The sight triggered a flash of recollection of she who had planted them, a daffodil nurturing daffodils.
Being perennials, the trumpeters will persist in taking our eyes by surprise.
Monday morning presented three signs of spring.
The first sign being, as I stepped outside with the Labrador retriever, that it was light enough at 5:30 to see the very twigs as the birds were tuning up.
Second, even though the sky was overcast, an old blue vinyl jacket sufficed for warmth and there was no need to wear that earflap camouflage Army cap.
And, most significant, pushing past a fringe of saplings, making my way toward the field, I saw that their slender branches were showing tiny green buds.
One day soon, resplendent spring, wholly appareled, will turn and face us, smiling, catching at our hearts, a chain of white daisies girdling her waist, wild plum blossoms atangle in her hair, a golden dandelion sun at her shoulder, with the scent of violets.
Spring will be here in her all-encompassing full glory, her beauty well nigh unbearable. by CNB