Marching In To a New Month

Here we are. A new month is right on our doorstep and that leads to questions. As winter gives way to spring, what kind of weather can the folks in Shady Pines Story Town expect?

In the sun drenched kitchen of the house on Dogwood Drive across from Copycat Lane, Edna Sanders is cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

Her husband, Harold, is about ready to leave for work. He owns the Nuts ‘N Bolts hardware store downtown on Main Street. Right now, he’s looking high and low for something.

“Honey, have you seen my keys?” he asks. Edna looks in a couple of drawers. “No,” she answers. “Maybe you should check upstairs on the dresser.”

As Harold heads to the bedroom, the Sanders’ Australian Shepherd dog, Boomerang, is lying under the kitchen table chewing his rawhide bone. Halley’s Comet, their silver streak of a cat, is perched on her pink window seat grooming herself.

Edna glances at her four-legged kids. “Boomer and Halley, where has this month gone? It seems like it was Valentine’s Day just a short while ago. And now the month is over.”

Harold bounds into the room with the keys in his hand. “Found ’em. They were right where you said they’d be.”

Edna places the last clean plate in the upper cupboard. “Harold I just realized tomorrow is a new month. Can you believe that?”

“Gosh, you’re right! I guess the question now is, will March come in like a lion and go out like a lamb? Or, the other way around?”

Edna turns and looks at him. “Where does that saying come from?”

My father told me it’s an old saying straight out of the Farmers’ Almanac.  It’s sorta forklore. Apparently our ancestors believed in balance.”

“What do you mean, balance?” asks Edna as she helps Harold on with his coat.

“It means if the weather at the start of the month is bad like a roaring lion, the month should end with good weather. You know, gentle, like a lamb,” says Harold.

“On the other hand,” wonders Edna, “if March begins mild it could end being wild!”

Harold gasps. “I never thought of that.”

Kindness Matters

Boomer stops chewing and looks over at Halley. “You know what that means don’t you?”

Halley rolls her eyes at him. “Oh, do tell, oh wonder dog. What does this mean?”

Boomer struts over to her. “In this story I am the mighty lion and you are the pitiful little lamb.”

“Oh pah-leez you overgrown bundle of fur,” hisses Halley. “No one would mistake you for a mighty anything!”

“Would too!”

“Would not!”

Boomer is so frustrated with Halley that he starts barking at her.

Harold takes Boomer by the collar and leads him away from the hissing cat. “What has gotten into you, two? Remember all those times we reminded you guys to be kind to one another?”

Edna is startled by the commotion. “In this house it seems March may be coming in like a lion!” she says stroking Halley to calm her down. Harold sits with Boomer and pets his head. “Easy boy. Pretend you’re a lamb.”

Boomer reacts with, “Grrrrr.”

Halley just grins.

And that’s where we leave the Sanders family on a quiet morning in the small Southern town of Shady Pines.

And just so you know, the forecast for Shady Pines the first week of March is supposed to be mild.

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