Spring in the Upper Midwest

I grew up on the East Coast, where spring is well underway by the middle part of March. Thirty years ago, I moved to the Upper Midwest. The first year I moved here, I had planned to go to a show back home in New York City the first week in April. but before I could pack up my family and scoot, we got dumped on . . . a couple of feet of snow! The company Suburban got buried up to its door handles.

That was 1978 and every year since then, I've heard someone around Iola say, "I like living in the Midwest where we have spring!" Well, I'll tell you, that's perfectly true. We had spring last week. The week before that we still had four feet of snow. This week, it hit 70. That means it will be 90 next week. Summer has arrived.

For old car nuts in the Upper Midwest, this time of year is just a bit frustrating. Since we already had nice weather, we all have our old cars out and ready to go. But show promoters have learned it doesn't pay to schedule events for this time of year, when snow is still a real possibility. So, we have to wait until the Spring Jefferson Show on April 26-67 (www.madisonclassics.com) before we really have a good-size swap meet to visit.

That's Spring in the Upper Midwest.