The Talk of New York

It's spring again

By Bob Yampolsky

April is a mixed bag. Yesterday I was outside in short sleeves; this morning I wore my hat and gloves. Tomorrow we're going to have rain. The baseball season has begun (with Shinjo making a splash), but the winter sports of ice hockey and basketball still continue.

Let's talk about April.

A few Aprils back, at the last company I worked at, Michelle, the human resources director, walked through the office one day passing out a notice saying that July 4 would no longer be a company holiday. "You've got to be kidding," someone shouted after her, but she just shrugged her shoulder and said, "I don't make up the rules here," and continued on her way.

It was outrageous, but it wasn't surprising. It was exactly the sort of thing our company would do. All around me people stewed. Secretly, I gloated. I had already decided to quit, and this just confirmed for me the correctness of my decision. Then Michelle came back a little while later, saying, "So did you like my little April Fool's notice?" Very few people did, either the employees who fell for the joke, or the president, who took the joke as criticism. Michelle left the company soon after I did.

That's how April starts, with a day when hoaxes and pranks are encouraged. At least April Fool's Day was on a Sunday this year, so that victims of office and classroom pranksters were spared.

April 1 this year was also the beginning of daylight saving time. At 2 a.m., Sunday, April 1, the clocks were moved ahead one hour. Though it is something we go through every year, the change is still dramatic. The days are suddenly much longer, as the daylight lasts well past seven. We know for certain that it is spring.

The first spring flower that covers Manhattan is the daffodil. Daffodils are an ideal city plant.

The profusion of daffodils in New York is a recent thing, and to me they are as good a symbol as any for New York's renaissance. In patches of dirt that would have been covered with trash a dozen years ago, clumps of daffodils now bloom. New Yorkers were busy planting daffodils during the good times of the '90s. Their diligence has been rewarded, as now there are daffodils everywhere.

April may begin frivolously, with April Fool's Day, but it can quickly turn serious. This year, April 7 was the beginning of Passover, a Jewish holiday, celebrated by the religious and non-religious alike. For the orthodox, at least, the holiday lasts eight days, and here and there you'll see stores closed for the entire week. On the street you'll see Jewish families dressed elegantly for the holidays.

The Passover holiday coincides with the Christian Holy Week, when churches have special services virtually every day, culminating in Easter Sunday. At Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, New York's new cardinal gave his first Easter Mass, and church-going families walked proudly down the street, wearing their Easter best. There were egg hunts on lawns across the city, and at the Easter Parade, as always, men and women paraded down Fifth Avenue, wearing outsized and outlandish hats. The weather was beautiful, flowers were in full bloom and the streets were full of people who were simply happy that it was spring. The day was pretty close to perfect.

But as I said, April is a mixed bag. Easter this year fell on April 15, which is also the final day for mailing tax returns. And as always on April 15, near midnight, there was a huge line at the main post office in Midtown (which never closes), as taxpayers rushed to meet the deadline.

I had about seven different forms in seven different envelopes to mail, and I took them to the post office, where there was a special window just for tax returns. It felt good to be done with them. I stepped outside, buttoned my jacket against the wind, and hurried to the warmth of the nearest subway station.

Shukan ST: April 27, 2001

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