SPRINGTIME IN BROOKLYN

Contrary to popular misconceptions there's plenty of trees in Brooklyn. On my little street the Maples and English Plane trees are starting to sprout their little buds that will soon become the broad green leaves that provide us with shade and beauty. The gardeners at the co-ops across the street are already starting to spruce up their lawns and hedges and blowing away the remnants of last year's dead leaves with noisy leaf blowers. The ice cream vendors are tuning up their trucks to get ready for cruising the streets making children of all ages happy as they ring their joyious bells along their appointed rounds.

Spring is here and the blood in our veins is throbbing with new life, just like the trees lining our streets. While this past winter was not a severe one, it was plenty cold enough to make the Springtime sweet, the anticipation of warmth and renewal affecting all of us. In a couple of weeks the spectacular Cherry Groves at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden will be a mass of soft blossoms spraying their pink and white petals and sweet aroma all over delighted children in the caressing breezes of Flatbush. Gardeners are already turning over the soil in their yards and window boxes and planning this year's crop of flowers, fruits, spices and vegetables. Overcoats, scarves and gloves are being stored for the season and the ladies are already shopping for this year's Spring and Summer clothes. Can't wait to see what they come up with this time. They never disappoint.

What's not to love about the Spring? Is there a more joyous and invigorating time of year? Of course having a Spring means that you had to survive a Winter, otherwise Spring wouldn't mean all that much. I feel sorry for places that don't have all four seasons, which to me are the full measure of life. The colder and more harsh the Winter, the sweeter the Spring, the more alive one feels when the warmth and bountiful growth of life arrives. And a beautiful Spring prepares us for the joys of Summer, when we unashamedly shed most of our clothing and play in the sun, children of a bountiful earth. That sweet summer comes to an end with the bracing air of Autumn, when we harvest earth's bounty and prepare for the frosty Winter of snowmen, warm fires and hot chocolate. And the Winter that so tests us rewards us with yet another Springtime as our reward for enduring everything Mother Nature has thrown at us. All in all, a pretty good system.

And so now it is once again Springtime in Brooklyn. The grannies are out and about, walking with their grandchildren, telling them all about Brooklyn and life, one and the same in many a mind. Hot dog wagons are reappearing and Coney Island is all set to reopen for another season of fun and wonder by the sea. The kids in the street have put away the footballs and are throwing the baseballs back and forth. The parks are full of people again, and the basketball courts have waiting lines to challenge the winners for the court. Bicyclists, skateboarders and skaters are rolling everywhere. And in another sue sign that Spring has arrived, the roads are seeing more and more motorcycles roaring by.

On the waterfront which surrounds Brooklyn on 3 sides, the pleasure craft are being readied for boating season and the commercial fishing fleet is booking day trips to catch the ones that got away last year. Canarsie Pier is already lined with anglers trading lies and fishing tips. A lot of birds are coming back from their winter down south, lean, hungry and glad to be back in Brooklyn. Rooftop pigeon coops are being repaired and the baby birds are learning to fly in formation with their flocks. And the sun is lighting up the whole place at a slightly different angle, softening the hard ground, opening the buds of the flowers and trees and warming hearts.

Even traffic cops are giving more breaks than usual to speeders and stop sign beaters. Everybody seems to lighten up a bit. By the end of winter we're all getting on each other's nerves and now that's changed. Greetings are friendlier, people are cutting each other more breaks. The quick hellos to a neighbor on a cold day are now catch-up conversations in the sun, lingering with one another for a friendly chat or exchange of gossip. People are dropping by more and rushing around less. The kids are running around doing wacky kid things and making wacky kid noises again, music to our ears after the muted tones of winter.

Pretty soon Spumoni Garden will open up its famous outdoor picnic tables so their one-of-a-kind pizza can be enjoyed outdoors. Countless other cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating are also getting ready to feed us on the sidewalk once again. Sheepshead Bay is filled with strollers on their leisurely urgent missions to nowhere special, as is the boardwalk of Brighton Beach. Proud parents are planning graduation parties, and kids are looking for Summer jobs. College kids are getting ready to go make a nuisance of themselves in Florida during Spring Break while a lot of the elderly snowbirds are shutting down the Florida condo to return to Brooklyn where the sublime chaos makes more sense to them than the orderly self-contained little communities where they spent the winter.

Me, I'm looking at my house and getting ready to resume some of the never-ending repair and maintenance jobs we didn't finish before winter set in. There's also the barbecue grill to be uncovered and put into use.There's patio furniture waiting to be liberated from the storage shed and maybe painted again. There are no gardening chores for yours truly since I covered my yard with cement and white marble stones. Nothing grows in my yard but appetites and I can't wait to entertain family and friends in the sun again. I'm already checking the calendar and checking who's available on what weekends. Planning some menus too.

Hoping to play some outdoor shows, too. Those are always a blast. I'd like to catch some other bands' shows, too, and check out some of the city's cool street fairs. Baseball season is here, too, so a few trips up to the Bronx are in order this year to say goodbye to old Yankee Stadium in it's last season. Hope the new one measures up when it opens in '09. Big shoes to fill, building-wise. There will also be plenty of decent baseball games to watch in Brooklyn at Marine Park between the various kid leagues or in Coney Island's Keyspan Park where the Mets Single A minor league team plays.

With any luck the season will be one without too much news about steroids and HGH, and both the Yanks and the Mets have interesting teams that can possibly make to the World Series this year. Both teams have their little flaws and weaknesses, but that's what makes the game interesting. It's more fun watching a flawed team overcome their weaknesses to play solid baseball that an invulnerable powerhouse of a team steamroll the opposition all year. Being a Yankee fan that sounds like blasphemy but too bad. None of us in Brooklyn are without our contradictions here and there. Even with all the controversy with all the Hercules drugs and Congress investigating the superstars, the game's still the thing and there is no better game than baseball. Will the rookie learn to hit the breaking pitch? Will the old veteran coax another great season out of his battered body? Will that wild young pitcher harness his skills and win 20 games this year? Play ball!

There is no better place to live than Brooklyn and no finer time of year than Springtime. Everybody's out and about, the place is getting spruced up and Spring Fever is breaking out in its annual epidemic. There's three million of us here feeling the same feelings, taking long walks on familiar streets in our annual Spring inventory. So far every thing seems in order. The women are beautiful, the children happy and the men a lot less grumpy. All is as it should be.