March has been showing off this year. It has presented quite a range of weather: summer daytime temperatures, thunderstorms, windy days and nights, some snow, and all the moderate changes in between.

Like all of the seasons, spring brings a number of activities that seem to be related to the calendar as well as the landscape. Kites are the first ones I usually notice. Years ago they were all “homemade” and were constructed from scraps in the workshop, with a tail of calico and gingham scraps left from the making of aprons or pinafores. Today one can spend a considerable amount to purchase a sophisticated kind of “box” kite or one shaped like an animal. But are they as much fun as those my grandfather used to make?

Fads and some games and items that suddenly become collectible rise and fall with the season or the popularity they generate. Remember just about five years ago when the fad of collecting pogs was sweeping the countryside? They went to school stuffed into pant pockets or lunch boxes. They surfaced for swaps and trades and show off, wherever and whenever kids congregated.

Baseball card collections seem to never really fade away. They gain prominence in early spring and by the time snow flies they are tucked away in neat piles in boxes and desks.

Baseball card collections have great value if they include some of the rarer cards that were among the early day issues. Some still come packed with strips of chewing gum that become bubbles for the chewer who gets the exact knack. Many an adult has almost wept the day it was discovered that those childhood collections were discarded one spring cleaning time!

During my long ago school years it became an overnight craze for every kid on the block to go around wearing a brightly colored dog collar around his or her ankle. A neighbor in Danbury where I lived complained that she couldn’t find a small collar for her Pekinese dog because “the school kids have bought them all up!”

Trading marbles or agates was an absolute sure thing, come spring and warm weather. Girls carried some around in homemade cloth bags – even the bags drew a share of attention. Boys carried a small leather pouch and carefully stowed away their cherished “popseys,” or ones with special colors that became favorites.

Even the small pieces of glass that were used to play games of hopscotch were collected and saved and swapped by the younger crowd. These tokens came from broken bottles or household glassware.

I remember the summer I spent a week at Fairfield Beach with my aunt and uncle. Wandering along the tide line collecting pieces of brightly colored glass was the highlight of my visit. The glass was worn smooth as a piece of satin by their tidal trips in the sand and shells. What hopscotch treasures I had to take home from that vacation!

My all-time favorite fad – or hobby – was the autograph book that was an absolute must for everyone, during some early years. What fun it was to find clever verses and comments when the thin little book was given to a friend or relative to write in. I remember clearly what one teacher – Margaret Previdi – wrote in my book. “Always turn your face toward the sunshine and let the shadows fall behind you.”

Other fads came and went and some came back again for another generation. There were beaded bracelets and mood rings and treasures found in Cracker Jack boxes. Nothing was very expensive, compared to the things kids today consider necessary as well as desirable. It probably was more fun to us, collecting the simple things we sought, compared to the games and musical items which young people today are anxious to own.

The little flock of juncos that are the winter visitors are still around, but they are eating more often. Perhaps that is to prepare for their trip back north.

We can count the weeks now before the orioles and hummingbirds and indigo buntings will be back to take up summer residence. Bluebirds are already all around – some winter here. Each year these sightings are all good signs that the season is changing, once again.

Last week’s quote was by Aldo Leopold, from “A Sand Country Almanac.”

Who said – “And as the smart ship grew in stature, grace and hue,

In shadowy silent distance, grew the iceberg too”?