@Maestrobjwa I got thinking about this some more and I think it's important to remember we are humans with subconscious bits of our memory that influence how things feel. This year and the past two we've had above normal March temps followed by avg or slightly negative departures in April and May (20/21). In my mind this would tend to "feel" like a cold spring, especially if those warm March avg temps were brought on by a few key warm stretches towards the end of the month and not a general slightly above average regime. To have that then be followed up by weeks and weeks of the same temps would feel "cold" even if it's about average.
2018 is also in recent memory which is pretty much the coldest early spring we've had in the past 2 decades. May obviously bucked the trend that year but the memory was made at that point.
My guess is those two things make the past few years seem out of place.