Trying To Weather Dismal Weather
MAYNARD (CBS) -- All winter families trapped in their houses thanks to dismal weather consoled themselves with one thought: wait for spring.
Then spring arrived. Kind of.
An abysmal April gave way to a grey May. Heading outdoors Tuesday afternoon, you could still see your breath when you exhaled.
It's causing a lot of parents to come close to pulling their hair out - running out of things to do with their children.
With outdoor playgrounds puddled and soggy, most have no choice but to stay indoors.
Jam Time Indoor Play & Enrichment Center in Maynard opened this winter, just in time to give families a break.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong plays inside.
"All the moms let us know, the kids are driving us nuts, they need a place to run around," said Malcolm Sim, who owns Jam Time with his wife.
He says they were busy this winter, and a dreary spring has kept their playground packed.
"Weeks like this are perfect," Sim explained, "because the kids are bouncing around the house and they just get to come in here and run around."
"It's been awful," said Hudson mom Chrissy Kelley, "especially with two kids, to get out of the house and play."
She was happy to spend some time letting the kids burn off steam Tuesday morning.
"This is a long week. For a stay-at-home mom, it's very long," Kelley said.
"I'd prefer being outside if I could," offered Pauline Avery, a mother of two. "But as soon as it gets rainy, this is where we'll come. You just need to get out of your house. The winter was an especially important time to come."
A place like Jam Time is booming precisely because of the weather. However, for a lot of other businesses, the rain has the opposite effect.
For example, the garden center at Pemberton Farms in Cambridge had 10 employees on the schedule. The owner sent eight of them home Tuesday, since no one's planting or gardening in the rain.
"I did the numbers today and we're down 15 percent for the month of May, and April was not much better," said Pemberton's owner Mark Saidnawey. He's holding out hope for better weather.
"The first sunny day we get, [customers] are all going to come at once, so we're going to buckle down and be ready for them. Whenever that day comes," he said.
