Wednesday, May 01, 2013

May Day in Monrovia!!


When I was a girl, May Day was a holiday that was celebrated in fine style.  At our elementary school, we had a May Pole Dance, where we wove the ribbons over and under, and at the junior high level, we even had a May Queen.  

What made the holiday so spectacular in my mind was the carnival at school that always accompanied it.  I headed first to the make up booth, where someone dolled me up in fine style. When I went home, I tried to avoid having anyone notice that I didn't wash off the make up!  Other prizes included gold fish - always a hit.  Life wasn't so lavish then, so a school carnival could rival Disneyland in my mind.

I have photos of the junior high May Pole dancing, but it's lost in cyberspace, I guess.  So I am going to pretend that Phoebe and Meli are trundling up and down Primrose, delivering May baskets.  They actually did that, but I'm not sure this was the day.  They are trundling Eliza anyway!!

I love remembering how they saved strawberry baskets, made ribbon handles, and stuffed the baskets full of flowers from the Pulokas garden.  Then they hit the neighbors - especially Mr. Sands and the Shorts - rang the bell and ran.

May Day - a lost art I suppose!

Don't get me started on how the holiday ended in the U.S.!!

1 comment:

Alice said...

I have fond memories of May Day as well. They still have that kind of celebration in Sweden but it is on Midsommer Afton (Mid summer night) I went to one when I was there and it was great.