My family moved to Minnesota from the south right as the century was turning from the last into this current one. For us this meant the winter of 2000 was our first Minnesota winter and our first time experiencing how long it takes for spring to come around.
Before coming to Minnesota it started warming up for us more like in February or March, not in late April, or May… some years we all know that spring is really just a brief moment in June. So winter starting at Halloween and lasting until it finally gives up and leaves was a brand new concept to us that my mother still hasn’t adjusted 22 years later.
My parents built the house that my sister and I grew up in, out near Mazeppa and it had this huge porch that started at the front of the house and wrapped all the way around to the back. Right off the side of the porch was a branch from one of the nearby trees that leaned over just far enough that it felt like you should be able to reach out and touch it off the side of the porch.
I can remember clearly throughout my childhood watching my mother go out onto the porch, when spring decided to grace us with her presents, to look at that branch when the new leaf buds would start to appear; and she would cheer on the leaves. Telling them things like “go leaves! You can do it” and “come on littles leaves you can do it.”
I am not entirely sure why she used to do this, but it is what I remember watching my mother do when I was a kid every year between April and June depending on the year. Whether it really was to get the leaves to grow faster or if it was just a fun thing for her to do is still unknown to me. What I do know is that when I was a child the first real signs of spring for me was hearing my mother cheer on the new leaves to help them grow.
