Thursday, May 11, 2006

CINDERELLA? SORT OF

Springfield is probably a pretty typical small city. Officially, there's fifty thousand or so people who live here. Several small towns around the fringes. And over the river, our big sister Eugene. Named for Eugene Skinner, the first settler. I have to admit, as a name for a city, Eugene is pretty unique. On the other hand, I'm not sure how many Springfields there are scattered across the country.

Dad used to joke that the last time Eugene thought it needed Springfield was back when Springfield was "wet" and Eugene was "dry." And if any of you are young enough to not know what that means, call your folks.

Anyway, Springfield your basic mill/industrial type town. Not too pretty. The tallest building is the local hospital. Lots of little post war homes. Lots of big lots that have been subdivided so that there are two or three little houses where there used to be one little house. Lots of little auto repair shops and the like east of town. Some newer, glitzier developments to the north. A fairly nice mall. That sort of thing. And right now it's downright beautiful.

All the trees have leafed out. There are pink and white dogwoods all over town. The first flowering shrubs are bursting with blooms. The grass is still green and a lot of the old lawns are full of violets and those little English daisies. The birds are singing their little hearts out in the mornings. The first bulbs are up. And some lucky people with more sun than our yard gets actually have irises all ready. Ours are still poking their leaves out and wondering if it's a good idea to stay up or if it's possible to rewind the tape.

And, once again we have a bird family in the wall of the garage. Finally realized what the Bandit was finding so fascinating in the evenings. The hole in the garage wall is just above the window and there's just room enough to sit on the sill (if you're a cat) and watch the parents trying to keep up with the babie's bottomless pits.

It's actually almost fun to make the drive home in the evenngs just to see what's started blooming in the last couple of days. When it's your home town it looks pretty good just because it's home. Right now it looks like the prettiest place around.

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to love the row of crabapple(?) trees planted along Centennial  just before you get to Mohawk (going east...)  Beautiful in bloom for a couple weeks every spring, spectacular in autumn when they turned yellow all at once.  Springfield was a nice little town to live in.  I was happy to call it home for four years.  Lisa  :-]

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely tribute to spring and to your town.  We ALSO (!) have a bird family in the wall of the garage and since there is a tall arched window above the front door, I can sit in the armchair in the living room and watch the parents going to and fro.  My cat would love the activity, too, but it's too high for her to notice.  
*debbi*