MAY DAY "J" DAY!!!

Let's start this day by wishing Jaeme a happy tenth birthday! That is pretty much what May first is about for me in the present and in the future.

And of course, mumbling rabbit, rabbit after midnight for a month of luck.

But long ago, May 1 had significance as being the day one left baskets on porches and then knocked and ran so the little boy next door could not catch you, lest he kiss you! Of course for some, there was no kissing nor catching, for others in was run in slo-mo and be caught. In some cases MAYDAY may have been a symbol of distress regarding the kissing part.

In elementary school, the teacher ran off patterns of May baskets on ditto machines. Before they were cut out and the seams glued, we could color them. Remember these? Remember how droopy the paper was?

In or about fourth grade, I went to the mom and pop store in the neighborhood with fifty cents to buy candy for the small baskets I had made out of construction paper. It was an era where you got two for a penny candy, and in some cases, four pieces of taffy wrapped together for a penny. The idea was to get the most wrapped candy for the money available. I hopped on my bike and came home. A softball game was going on across the street, I hollered I would be there. I put my bike away, and put the sack on the step going into the kitchen and went off to play.

All of us have a few times in our childhood where mystery and that sinking feeling come together. What happened next was one of mine.

When I went home for supper, the candy sack wasn't there. I figured mother was annoyed with me leaving it on the step and put it in my room. We sat down to supper and after the dishes were done, I went to my room to do my project, but the sack was not in my room. I looked, I looked on my dresser and on my bed.

I am only telling you this because I was the type of child at that time that if it didn't bite me, I didn't see it. Notice that I said as a child; when you have a husband(s) and children one becomes the keeper of the house and all knowing about where everything is--third drawer UNDER the microwave--in the front).

I asked mother what she did with the sack. She stated she had not seen it. I wondered if she was in a sour mood and simple didn't wish to answer. It was not so, she had not seen it. So I asked Daddy, who was laying on the davenport reading a book. Rather than say he hadn't seen it, he asked me something else. I was in a fidget, I only wanted my candy. By this time, I was sure that my brother Greg, had taken it, but how? I know the why, like myself and Daddy we had a true sweet tooth. Even Greg looked puzzled as he said, "Don't blame me!"

Daddy asked me what it looked like. Well, a sack of candy, of course. What significance did that have? Where did you leave it, he asked. I told him I had left it on the step coming into the kitchen. I didn't see the significance it that either but would honor him because he generally seemed to be taking this question and answer scenario somewhere.

He sat up and laid his book down. "You know, I give the dog hamburgers in brown sacks when we go hunting, did you check his bed?", he asked.

Oh gloom, I had forgotten about Diamond and the brown sacks and the greasy hamburgers. I had this sinking feeling the mystery was going to be solved as I pushed open the door to the laundry room in the basement. There was the sack, and all that was left of my 50 cents worth of candy were the caramels, bitten into but not consumed. I gathered them up and when back up stairs.

It is NOT funny to be laughed at when you are in a funk. NOT FUNNY. Mother, in her realistic tone announced I shouldn't have left them there. But that didn't solve the problem. I had no money to replace the candy for the next day unless I took it out of the Sunday School envelopes which had been prepackaged with dimes and I knew I would really be sunk if I did.

Imagine God watching me rip open the envelopes to get money to buy something to give to someone else. Dang, that isn't such a bad thing, maybe I should have checked out those dimes!

I did what any child would do, I started taking the cushions off the furniture looting for cash. I checked pockets and drawers but didn't find enough to cover my expenses. Next? Ask for an advance. I uttered the loss was my responsibility. Daddy said he was partially to blame. He gave me enough to make 50 cents and made me agree it was a lesson learned. For some reason, it wasn't as exciting buying the candy the second time around.

Old Trunks as talked often about those life lessons learned. Was it dogs don't eat caramels or was it put stuff away or is it adults will help you solve a mystery or is it kids fidget, act like children, and sometimes feel gloomy. Or was it the beginning of checking cushions for cash? Or all of the above? Just for today, it is realizing that caramels is not spelled carmels and there is an extra "A".

On May 1st, 1561, French King Charles IX received a lily of the valley a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley to each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom on the 1st of May, to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime. Rachel, on the other hand, offered lilacs, which bloomed in Lawrence at the first of the month. It was during an era where you could stuff your mailbox with flowers for the mailman and he would cherish them.

What would May Day remembrances be without watching a group of Girl Scouts try to do a Maypole dance around the telephone pole? The concept was right, we knew the dance was a weaving of the streamers which would grace the pole when finished. In our mind it worked, I just don't think we were ready for UTUBE.

Magic May Memories to all.

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