When the sun comes out prematurely, and it is 50-plus degrees for multiple days in a row, Madison’s citizens undergo a change. Rising out of their winter parkas and crew neck sweatshirts, people from all corners of campus venture over to the Memorial Union Terrace to soak in the sun’s rays.
The improved weather patterns illicit strange behavior of Madison’s best and brightest. Women on Bascom Hill remove their shirts between classes to get the season’s first burn, families arrive in droves toting leashed children and “baby bjorned” infants and humans and ducks reconnect through a shared love of Pringle crumbs.
Just sitting on the terrace for a couple hours affords bystanders an exciting look into the secret lives of Madison folk. Children doggedly throw rocks at passing ducks, maximizing on what must be some long-forgotten survival technique. I would rule it self-defense. Mere feet away from the tots, two ducks carry out their reproductive duties (who knew they could do it in water?) and a dog poops on the concrete. At the end of the pier, students—who have come to the collective realization that the Memorial Union sells pitchers—are drunk despite it being 2 p.m. And scattered around the edge of the water are people practicing their best pensive faces while staring thoughtfully out at the lake. Some students bring backpacks to pretend that they have productive intentions. Speaking personally, my favorite technique is to keep my textbook cracked open and my highlighter in hand as to emit an air of productivity. Realistically, I am just letting my gaze fall over all of the happy Madison residents and visitors (of course, all of the great dogs are an added bonus).
The true magic of these recent phenomenons, a magic I greatly appreciate, is that this kind of weather did not come around until April last year. By that point in the semester, my motivation had all but completely left me, and I could easily see the light at the end of the tunnel that was my school year. We were all but home free. But what about now? Does it matter that it is only mid-March, but I skipped two classes last week to go bask in the sun? If I had to guess, UW-Madison professors will soon see the starkest of drops in students’ GPAs in University of Wisconsin history (yet another unfortunate consequence of global warming).
While sitting on the terrace over the past week, I have twice seen ducks doing it, witnessed a few too many snap-backs and “mom jean” shorts and encountered enough Lakeshore Path joggers to make me consider taking up exercise again—and that is saying something. Of course, these seasons-changing traits are not just observable on the beautiful Memorial Union Terrace. From summer crowds on State Street to people lounging on the Square, everything is exactly as it should be in Madison during this new season we call “spring but mostly summer.” Here is to an extra month and a half of duck sex!
