ELK POINT - Remember the old adage about March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb, or vice versa? I always wonder if anyone has kept track of how many times this actually turned out either way, versus how many times it didn’t.
That’s right up there with the groundhog’s predictions, which may or may not come true, but how much accuracy can we really expect from a sleepy rodent? Is he swayed by global warming, energized from eating GMO-tainted forage or confused by having an extra day in February every four years? I expect he would use all those excuses, if he could just converse in a language someone other than a groundhog would understand.
The weather will do as it will, regardless of the behavior of wildlife, wooly farm animals or neither of the above, but there are things about March that we do know will happen.
Curling is one prime example. The Tim Horton’s Brier is going full steam ahead this week, the World Women’s Championship starting at the end of next week in Prince George, BC and the World Men’s, in Glasgow, Scotland, starting right after the women pose with their trophies. I’m sure there will be other things on TV this month, but many of us will only see them in between the televised games, with the men’s games starting so early in the day that those prone to sleeping in will be up long before daylight so they don’t miss a single end.
Daylight…. That’s another March thing. This coming Sunday we leap ahead an hour, getting up in the dark again, just when we thought we had that licked, but also able to travel to evening meetings and events in broad daylight.
Minor hockey provincials will also be underway this month, with the top teams in all age levels crisscrossing the province to compete for the championships with their counterparts from other zones. Win or lose, it’s a great opportunity for hockey families to visit other communities and make new friends. Elk Point isn’t a host community this year, but in previous years, provincial tournaments have brought a huge influx of visitors to the community, and some of those families have come back in the summer to see what the area has to offer in a warmer season.
One thing that is on every March calendar is, of course, St. Patrick’s Day, and shamrocks and shillelaghs are showing up everywhere in readiness for the annual “Wearing of the green” day, when Irish food and green beer are a break from the everyday fare and maybe even listen to their old Irish Rovers music.
St. Paddy’s Day always takes me back to my sister and I listening to Bing Crosby sing “Danny Boy” on the old battery radio when I was a small child, both of us with a green bow in our hair, although Mother declared green to be an unlucky color, an old British tradition for some reason. I doubt if a St. Patrick’s Day has gone by without me wearing green, and I never found it to be unlucky in the least.
A number of less-known ‘days’ are also part of the March calendar. In fact, The Daily Calendar of Bizarre, Special and Unique Holidays tells me that yesterday was ‘Old Stuff Day’, recognizing the boring nature of our usual routines. Today, March 3, is more interesting. Along with being World Wildlife Day, which is well known, it’s ‘If Pets Had Thumbs Day’ – and seriously, I don’t want to think of all the trouble mine, already on the verge of being wildlife, could get into if they did. Tomorrow is ‘Holy Experiment Day,’ when you can pray for something and measure the results, according to the website, while Thursday is ‘Multiple Personality Day’, both days I’ve also never heard of before.
Of this week’s ‘days’, only Friday, World Day of Prayer, is something I’m familiar with, and a day that’s been observed in Elk Point many years by a combination of local churches, usually with a service written by women in the country featured that year, which in 2020 would be Zimbabwe.
Here’s hoping that your day is a good one!
