I’ve never really understood the significance or relevance of this so-called “March Break” week.
It’s not quite the end of winter. It’s not quite the beginning of spring. It rarely coincides with any religious holiday – Easter, Passover, etc. Parents with school-aged kids get excited about it – especially if they have access to a sun-belt or ski resort time-share condominium. And of course, college and university students think it’s the highlight of the school year. They all dream of escaping to the Florida beaches for sun, fun and libation, etc. I remember one of the campus slogans invented during the time I was at university:
“Come on down to Fort ‘Liquordale’ for fun in the sun,” it said.
The spring bacchanal (or booze up) was more myth than reality. It actually began in the mid-1930s, when members of the men’s swimming team at Colgate University in New York State went to Fort Lauderdale’s beaches to train and allegedly ended tearing up the town in search of young co-eds. The whole thing became even more silly with the likes of Connie Francis and George Hamilton when Hollywood immortalized the entire affair on film in the 1960 movie “Where the Boys Are.” (The 1984 re-make was even more tacky than the original.)
As a reaction (and act of wishful thinking), most colleges and universities now refer to the March break as “Reading Week” or “Study Week,” but it’s a pretty safe bet, even if under-graduate students don’t make it to Florida, neither do they make it to their books and assignments. Having taught at the college level for nearly 10 years now, I speak from some experience. As their instructors, we can encourage, organize and schedule as many reading/study week assignments as we like. The reality is that most students won’t begin to deal with those assignments until sometime next Sunday afternoon.
March, thy name is still procrastination.
Nevertheless, I admit, I did manage to work in a bit of rest and relaxation time during this mythical hiatus week. Over last weekend, my wife and I didn’t go south. We went north. Not to ski, snowshoe or skidoo. No. We met some Ottawa friends, who’ve recently purchased a summer cottage on a lake up in an Ottawa Valley district known as the Lanark Highlands. The place wasn’t winterized. In fact, it was still all boarded up. We just drove cross-country, parked at the end of their road and trekked through the remaining snow drifts of winter to have a peek and to do a little dreaming of summertime.
It was a gorgeous spot, nestled next to some Crown land, on a secluded inlet of the lake. Our friends showed us around the cottage lot – through nearly century-old pine trees and rock-strewn waterfront, along well worn foot paths, to the boathouse full of water toys (kayaks, canoes and paddleboats) to a short sandy beach still frozen beneath the lake’s winter covering.
From the cottage deck, we could imagine surveying afternoon games of horseshoes, blazing summer sunsets, reading the books we’ve neglected and campfires to while away the long summer evenings. Of course, as with any summer getaway spot, there will be chores to take care – launching the floating dock, painting the deck, cutting firewood for the wood stove and sweeping away the cobwebs of a year gone by.
“Those are the chores we look forward to,” our friends said.
Eventually, standing in the snow that remained nearly a foot deep on parts of the lot and staring at ice on the lake that’s still a long way from breaking up, it was soon time to head back to reality and leave the daydreaming of summer behind.
At any rate, here it is – the ides of March. We’ve got this so-called break in our lives. For those who will enjoy this week as a holiday, there will soon be plenty of reality to face when it’s over. There will probably be a municipal tax hike to contemplate. The Ontario budget arrives in about a week. The global economic downturn remains unresolved. Oh, and there are about six weeks to go before federal income tax returns are due.
Come to think of it, with all the potential bad news that remains on the horizon, maybe that’s why they scheduled the “March Break.” If we don’t take advantage of a pause in the action now, there won’t be another chance before the May 24 weekend. And a little of that Fort Lauderdale diversion might not be such a bad idea after all, whether Hollywood myth-makers or the Colgate University men’s swimming team invented it or not.
