january— brushing off the snow—skating and playing hockey on frozen lakes, trudging back to the house on cherry jello ankles and then sitting on green swirly carpet around the television drinking hot chocolate in the evening while snow paints the evergreens and cars white outside gray frosted up windows
february my least favorite month- the novelty of winter has worn off—it has overstayed its welcome, it has an ugly boring cold personality—spiced up only by throwing snowballs at cars from the utility easement and then running and hiding in my friend’s garage and looking at his old man’s Playboy magazines, spring still far away—not much else to say
march was doing donuts in the school parking lot in the snow—and then later--melting snow drifts, coffee puddles, black and gray gradient slush on street corners, basketball tournaments, reading about baseball spring training in afternoon papers soon to be irrelevant or not even in business anymore
april a time for opening days—warm beer and cold hot dogs, a time of hope for the eternally hopeful, last right hooks from old man winter now in the last round and behind on points—new clothes for easter, brown matted grass returning to the ways of green life, getting the motorcycle ready to ride after its winter hibernation
may the month for counting down the days until the end of the school year and then THREE MONTHS OFF!!! -graduation parties, getting the grill out of the garage for barbecued chicken and pork steaks—short sleeves, longer days and warming rays of the sun, public pools opening in town, playing running bases at a friends house
june for swimming in the same lake I skated on months earlier, going too fast in the boat, slowing down for bikini watching cruising by the beach, tubing, a drivers license course in summer school once—radio going all day, my mother’s marble birthday cake doused in rainbow buttercream icing fresh from the local bakery
july meant fireworks, sparklers, bottle rockets, firecrackers, cherry bombs, snakes, smoke bombs, roman candles, pinwheels...hot nights under neon lights at the county fair...sno-cones, elephant ears, tacos, popcorn—Ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, scramblers, discovering summer loves
august meant drinking water from a garden hose--the smell of fresh cut grass and nights of laying in the backyard looking up dreamily at the sky or the starry starry stars, sitting on the back porch swing—music on the radio wishing summer would never end but preparing to say bye bye bye to those summer days
september a month for finding out who was in your classes, what teachers you had or happily didn’t get...writing long dissertations on what you did during the summer vacation or making things up to make it more interesting or to reach the 500 word minimum, the end of summer loves and the start of autumn ones
october a month for watching afternoon baseball playoff games on the cutting edge zenith tv console, cool crisp afternoons after school, throwing the football around in the street with friends and talking of fast cars and fast girls and the undeniably bright futures we were undoubtedly all going to have but didn’t quite achieve
november a month of attending high school games, with girls with forgotten names, blurry faces and fading memories of them—thanksgiving dinners with roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits covered with butter, pumpkin pie, whipped cream—aging soon to be dead relatives seen once or twice a year
december time for --hard rock, hot cocoa, and black joe in a cup—-new years eve watching the old rich folks dancing to guy lombardo and his royal canadians from the waldorf-astoria in new york city on tv with the parents and having champagne--my once a year brush with alcohol///or so they thought
AULD LANG’S SYNE
