Welcome Spring! Where have you been? Why did it take you so long to get here? We’ll forgive you, though, and throw you a First Day of Spring celebration, vintage style. You’ll need ways to frisk about and frolic, things to do and tasty things to eat. Vintage Unscripted has you covered for all three.

Games for the First Day of Spring

Leapfrog

You’ve seen it done, but have you ever done it? It’s pretty straight forward, requires no equipment and can be played anywhere outdoors. You can leapfrog with two people or twenty. Here’s how it works: first person bends over low and steadies themselves the best they can. Second person gets a running start, puts their hands on the first person’s back as if they were a vaulting horse, spreads their legs wide as they vault over, sticks the landing and assumes the position. Each person leaps all the frogs until there is no one left to leap, then the first and most patient of the frogs leaps the whole line and on it goes.

Hoop and Stick

This goes beyond being a vintage game all the way back to ancient Greece. Greek athletes worked out with metal hoops they pushed and steered with a stick. It wasn’t long before the Romans stole the idea. Like all fads, it spread across the world from there. Hoop and stick games are played on every continent.

Wooden hoops  are prodded along by striking them with a wooden stick at about the stick’s midpoint. Metal hoops are often guided by long metal hoops. You are on your own for what to use to guide a plastic hula hoop though.

Wellesley College has a certified antique tradition of seniors racing with hoops in their graduation gowns on May Day. It’s not a casual thing, it is very much a straight-up competition. The winner not only gets the glory but gets tossed in the lake–a finishing ritual that started when a Harvard man competed in the race, was unmasked at the end and was consequently flung into Lake Waban by the Wellesley women.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch is another game played all over the world. It may have originated in ancient times, but it was definitely played in the 1600s, as noted in the Book of Games by Frances Willughby. It goes by different names in different countries, but the rules are the same.

To play, you draw a “court” using chalk, then scout about for something to use as a marker. Courts are squares or triangles attached to each other and numbered, finishing with a “home” at the far end. Standing at the start, a player tosses their marker into the first square and hops down the court using one foot in single squares and two feet in side by side squares. It’s an out and back game, you hop out to the home, turn and hop back. When you get to the square with your marker, you bend to pick it up, then hop to the finish. The first player’s turn is over when they 1) step in the square where the marker is, or 2) step on a line, or 3) fall.

There are traditional hopscotch court shapes, like these from SportsKnowHow.com,  but we are Vintage Unscripted and we say draw your court any old way you want.

Activities for the First Day of Spring

Start Some Seeds

Many plants started on the first day of spring will be ready to move outdoors after the last frost sometimes in May. Plants you grow yourself are often more robust than nursery-grown plants. And they certainly aren’t going to have the diseases that can happen with plants from massive grow operations like the impatiens fungus that came from commercial growers here in New England a couple of years ago.

Starting seedlings doesn’t have to be complicated. You need a soilless seed starting mix (definitely not garden soil from the backyard which is too heavy), seeds, some sunshine, warmth and ultimately some fluorescent lights to help the seedlings along. (Note: they do not have to be specific grow lights.)

Here are some more detailed directions for starting your seeds from Burpee, American Meadows and Country Living. Don’t be intimidated, there’s a method for starting seeds for everyone depending on how deep in the compost you want to dive. If you’re a first-timer or if you just like success, pick seeds that are deemed “easy to grow.”

Clean and freshen your nest

You don’t have to clean your entire house to enjoy a little spring freshness. Wash your windows and open them a crack to let winter’s stale air escape. Wash winter dust out of your curtains and dry them on the clothesline. Give your favorite collection a wash in the sink and a dry in the sun. Change your tablecloth to something light and bright. It doesn’t take much to put a spring in your step.

Stitch a few flowers

Fresh flowers are nice, but embroidered flowers last. Dig out your embroidery sharps and your floss and stitch a few flowers on the collar of a shirt or pocket of some jeans. If you can sew on a button, you can do simple embroidery. A simple tutorial on the lazy daisy stitch from Pam Ash Designs is a great place to start.

Recipes for the First Day of Spring

Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes

If you have an asparagus bed, you know how exciting it is to see the little tips poking through the spring garden soil. And because it’s the first day of spring, you don’t want anything that keeps you in the kitchen and not out frolicking, the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board has a zippy recipe where the oven does all the work for you: Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes.

Mud Puddles

Sometime after the first day of spring and before summer is prime mud season. So to gear up, make sure your puddle stomping boots don’t have any holes AND make these Mud Puddle tartlets from the 1999 booklet Yankee’s Just Desserts from Yankee magazine. If you need miniature muffin pans, there are lots available from vintage sellers online.

Mud Puddles makes 4 dozen

1 bag (14 oz) miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped

1 cup margarine or butter at room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until creamy. Sift together the flour, soda and salt and add to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Place about 1 teaspoon of the dough in each muffin cup.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until brown and not too doughy. Immediately push a peanut butter cup in the middle of each cookie. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Recipe credited to Nancy Burgess, Emmanuel Church, Newport, RI.