The Climate in Weathersfield

Just another week now past, here in the most suburban suburb I know, though I was on my backside longer than usual during the middle days, distracted by a condition better not to dwell on. Except to say that it wasn’t serious, just a damned nuisance. Which is pretty much the only way I’ve experienced illness so far, since I am fortunate in that way. Once I was well again, I had a lot of work to catch up on, which I did.

Last Monday, while I was still well, was a fully formed Spring day, and late in the afternoon I walked about a half mile to pick up Lilly at her friend’s house, where she’d gone (via the friend’s mother’s van) after school. Then Lilly and I walked back together. I expected her to complain about the lack of motorized transport, but she didn’t, and we had a fine daddy-daughter walk.

Our neighborhood (“Weathersfield”) was developed by an East Coast homebuilder called Campanelli in the mid-60s, and they mixed it up with five or six different front elevations, mainly featuring the then-popular split level. Most of the lots are about a fifth of an acre, I’d say, but some are irregularly large, since most of the streets curve. I suspect that Campanelli added such features to make it a cut above Levittown, or at least the reputation of Levittown, which was criticized in the 1950s for what...? Being ridiculously large houses on handkerchief-sized lots? No, wait, that’s current homebuilding.

Anyway, as in Levittown (I’ve read), the years have passed here in Weathersfield and the trees have matured and people have renovated, with the creation of two-car garages behind the houses an especially popular move. The 1960s was the last decade in which a new homebuilder would even dream of offering one-car garages, I suspect, and most of Weathersfield had them originally. But it’s a better style than some houses built 20 or 30 years later, which look like large garages with a house tucked back in the back somewhere.

The grass has been green a few weeks, the bushes are flush, and most of the trees are about half loaded with spring-green shoots. A lot of birds are around, and some bugs (ants, not mosquitoes). People are out walking, or working in their yards, or playing games. April’s been warmer than usual. Been a good month, minus a handful of days.