May 1, 2009

RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT-


Morning Folks! It's been a long time since I have posted anything here. I have missed y'all!
I have been busy dabbling in genealogical research,





taking ballroom dance lessons,

playing a little golf, doing a little class reunion business and just keeping up with Ed. I spent 5 days in FL earlier in the month, visiting my friend Ruth in Sarasota and spent one day with Dad and Inez. I am getting ready to head to Cape Cod for 3 months in a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe it is May already!



May. I love this month. Lots of sunshine and flowers everywhere. The days are longer and jackets are no longer necessary.
The birthstone is Emerald

and the birth flower is the lilly of the valley.



Did you know that no other month of the year starts on the same day of the week that May does? Go ahead and check it out. No other month in 2009 will begin on a Friday. June's like that, too.

May 1 is May Day, and always makes one think of sunshine, flowers and "tra la" so why is "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" the international signal for distress? I always wondered that. I found the answer is that it is from a French phrase, "m'aidez" which means I need help. Interesting little factoid, I thought.

Does anyone yonger than me even remember May baskets? They were a May Day tradition. It was really just a celebration that spring had arrived, although it certainly had its connection to labor and unions and I vaguely remember being told it was a Communist holiday at some point in my childhood.
Maypoles, "workers of the world unite", etc.



Anyway, as children we made May Baskets out of our old mid-morning milk cartons (3 cents it cost us for milk back then) and crepe paper, with pipe cleaner handles.

We decorated them in pastel colors, filled them with a few little butter cookies or candy. One year we planted pansies in them. After we finished making them we left them anonymously on the doorsteps of neighbors.

But when I was 7 years old, my Bluebird group made them and we set up a card table in Brown's bakery. The idea was we would sell the baskets to add a few dollars to our treasury and the Browns supplied the cookies. I just remember sitting there on a Saturday morning. In a bakery. Smelling all those fabulous aromas. Doughnuts, cookies, cakes, bread. Ah, heaven.





The Kentucky Derby, Memorial Day,

Mother's Day, (don't forget, kids)

and the Indianapolis 500

all take place in May in the US in May.



Oh, and of course my son Bill's birthday on the 21st is celebrated worldwide.





Have a great day and a great May, everyone!



Love,

Suz