Lime Day

Some years ago, back when my joints didn’t crack when I dragged myself off the couch, I was father to four little girls. The last two are twins and there’s just a bit more than three years separating all of them.

Each night, after supper, and after their baths, I’d lay on the rug in the living room and they’d jump all over me. I’d roll this way and that and growl like a bear and they’d laugh until they couldn’t catch their breath. They smelled of baby shampoo and good clean soap.

Later, I’d sit on the couch and the four of them would sit on my lap. I’d smell their hair and read to them from Danny and the Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal, both by Syd Hoff, and perhaps the best books ever written for little kids. I’d change the stories a bit each night and they’d shout to correct me. “No, no, no! That’s not the way it goes.” And I’d tell them that those are the words in the book and that I wasn’t changing a thing, and in this way, the four of them wanted to learn how to read. To keep me honest.

I traveled around New York for a manufacturer’s rep in those days and when I came home late and they wondered what happened I would ask them if they hadn’t seen it on the news.

“What, Daddy?”

“You know that white tennis stadium by the big Coney Island Ferris wheel that we pass in the car sometimes? It’s the one that glows like a big balloon because they puff it up with air?” They all nodded. “Well, there’s a plumbing supply house right next door to that place, and today one of the men drove his forklift into the big balloon. It was an accident, but the balloon took off into the air and flew all over the sky. It landed across the highway and that’s why the traffic was backed up. And that’s why I’m late.”

“Were the people still inside the balloon, Daddy?”

“Yes, and they were all wearing white tennis clothes. It was hard to find them inside the white balloon, but they’re okay.”

They’d look at me and at each other, and one would say, “That’s not true!” and I would look hurt. And another would say, “Is it true?”

“Of course it is. Don’t you watch the news on the TV?” And in this way, they became interested in current events. Can’t be too careful with those big tennis balloons.

They grew and they all went to school together and I would drive them there whenever I could. One day in early spring I had them look at the buds on the trees as we drove along and I told them that it’s important for them to pay close attention to those buds because Lime Day was coming. I just cast it back there into the minivan and waited for one of them to bite.

“What’s Lime Day, Daddy?”

“What’s Lime Day? Are you serious?”

They looked at each other, each not wanting to be the only one not knowing, and once they agreed that it was safe to continue, one said. “We don’t know what that is?”

So I laughed and explained to them that Lime Day is a National holiday. It comes around once a year on the day when all the buds on all the trees are that absolutely perfect shade of lime. “It helps if it’s misting a bit on that day because a bit of mist makes lime even prettier.”

“What day is Lime Day, Daddy?”

“That’s the best part,” I explained. “Every kid in the world gets to call Lime Day. You have to watch the trees very carefully, and you have to decide for yourself that it would be impossible for the leaves to be any more limey than they are right now. Then you call it and that’s it. Lime Day! The next day, the leaves are just boring green and they’ll stay that way all summer long.”

“But what if you call Lime Day and the next day is limier, Daddy?”

“Well, then your sister wins and that makes you a loser,” I explained.

They looked at each other and said, “There’s no such day.”

“Of course there is,” I said, and as spring crept closer and closer to us that year, I convinced them that Lime Day was as real as the Fourth of July.

Now here comes the best part: As the weeks went by, they each went to their classes and told the other kids about Lime Day. The other kids told my kids that they were full of crap, of course, but in their hearts, those other kids wanted there to be such a day because it’s just the best thing going, so they went home and asked their parents. The kids explained Lime Day and those magnificent parents all lied right along with me. Wouldn’t you?

And in this way, my daughters came to see the beauty of nature in the paved-over, suburban world of Long Island. And they carried that with them into life.

And in all the many years that have gone by since then, each of our daughters calls in on Lime Day, no matter where they are in the world. No matter how busy they may be. They call.

And now, so do our grandkids.

I live for those calls.

And it’s coming again this year. Lime Day. It’s coming soon. In spite of all this sorrow, it’s coming. So please stay home as much as you can. Use the quiet time that is the silver lining of this horrible pandemic. Look for the lime out your window, or if your window doesn’t want to cooperate, use your memory.

Watch carefully. Call it when you’re sure it can’t possibly get any more limey out there. Call it.

And I hope you win.

- Dan Holohan