An Early Spring

 Feb 3, 2022


It was the month of February, and all the birds were still cold and frigid. They’d heard that it was meant to be an early Spring this year, so they all went down to the grocery store to buy themselves a large steak. They always hosted a large dinner at the beginning of spring.
“Can we please get some pork this year?” Asked one of the baby birds. 
“Yes we can do that,” answered his father. It took 37 birds to lift the package of pork off the shelf and fly it over to the cashier. The birds had to pay with change that they’d collected from the sidewalk. It took another 42 birds to carry the sack of coins, which they dumped onto the counter. The cashier, who was 16 and had only been hired the day before, spent the next 10 minutes counting all the nickels and dimes. 
Later that night the birds started up a fire and began cooking their piece of pork.
“It’s a good thing that Spring is coming early this year,” smiled a blue jay. 
“Oh yes, it’s been a cold winter, and particularly grey!” Added a swan. 
The cooking was going very well. A flamingo was in charge of the meal. She was ordering a group of smaller birds around, instructing them how to properly season the pork and when to flip it over on the grill.
“How much butter?” Asked a sparrow. 
“Well more than THAT!” Roared the flamingo, gesturing with her in an aggressive way. 
After much hard work the piece of pork was off the grill and was being divided up for all the birds. They’d all sat down to begin celebrating when they noticed an ominous cloud approaching. The temperature began to drop, and soon little specks of white snow were falling. The birds all began grumbling and complaining as their pork became cold. They chirped in frustration and returned to their burrows. 


Growing up in Canada means that you’re probably quite comfortable around the snow. I think that most of my early winter memories aren’t much different than anyone else's. I remember the warm feeling of being inside and watching the snow start to fall, and just praying as hard as possible, to anyone who might be listening, that the schools would be forced to close because of all the snow.
However, I think the winter memory that I look back on most fondly was around the time I turned 14. I remember my friend Jimmy telling me that he and another guy had made a bunch of money going around shovelling people's steps and driveways. I asked if they would take me with them next time it snowed. They agreed, and soon enough it seemed that we had a little business going. The only problem was that the number of shovelers kept increasing. My dad made me bring my little brother with me, and my friends Jack and Justin’s parents made them bring THEIR little brother as well. People would come to answer their doors and find 7 or 8 of us ready to get to work. We were having fun, but we were making less and less money. So we started splitting ourselves up into groups of two, that way we didn’t have to divide our pay checks between 8 kids. 
I remember one day my friend Jimmy telling me that he had heard that a local candy store was paying kids $50 EACH to shovel their driveways. So next time it snowed, we were yearly to ensure we were the first kids there. I remember waiting in their driveway at like 7:30, before the owners had even arrived. I remember them seeing like 6 kids ready to shovel and looking slightly surprised.