Trust me. I know. I rely on a foolproof method: Post Road traffic.
For decades, I’ve been able to tell when school is out. Driving around town is a breeze. I could roll a bowling ball down US1, and not hit a soul. Christmas, February vacation, spring break — it was always the same. Everyone was somewhere else.
A year ago, everything changed. The Great Recession spooked us all. Like endangered turtles, we retreated into our shells. No one went anywhere. People who had never not been elsewhere during a vacation learned to love Blockbuster and the Bow-Tie Cinema.
But at holiday parties this month, I sensed a change. Folks talked eagerly of upcoming trips to Utah, Europe, Bonaire.
Well, Bonaire to you too.
They weren’t kidding. Saturday — the day after Christmas — Westport was like a ghost town. Just like 2007, I drove where I wanted, parked where I pleased, even went to the CVS lot and lived to tell the tale.
You heard it first on “06880”: The recession is over.
And you can take that to the bank.
(Of course, the recession never slowed some people down. Westporter Eileen Ogintz described some of her family’s best trips in 2009 — including Aspen, the Grand Canyon, California, Alaska, the Cayman Islands and (for her daughter’s Staples graduation gift) Tahiti. It should be noted that Eileen is a professional travel writer who specializes in “taking the kids.”