"MAY BASKET!!!"
During my first year of teaching high school English, I used a line from "Intimations of Immortality," by William Wordsworth, "....feel the gladness of May...." to prompt my students to write a brief journal entry about why the month of May made them glad. Only one of 72 sophomores wrote about May baskets. The rest, I was to later find out, were clueless about this ritual.
"Why, this is a tragedy!" I was genuinely stunned. "You didn't make them in grade school? I can't believe you kids don't know about May baskets!"
Of course, they demanded to know more...anything to keep me from giving them homework...and so I digressed and explained the intricate details of creating colorful construction paper baskets (some kids used rolled paper plates), filling them with candy and flowers, dropping them off at friends' homes around suppertime on May 1st, yelling, "May basket!"--then running like hell back to Mom's car and speeding off to the next home.
"What was the point?" one student asked.
"It was something fun to do!" I said.
Fun was probably an understatement. My longtime pal Rick, jumping the gun by a day, wrote in an email last night that he ranked delivering May baskets right up there with Halloween and Christmas. I agree.
I've tried to figure out why May baskets have become extinct. Do grade school kids have more important items on their social agendas? Is it not politically correct? Do parents no longer have the time (or maybe the gasoline) to haul their kids around town? I don't know. It's a shame.
What I DO know is that I've once again made a May basket for Big Bore today. It is pink and purple and has four little compartments filled with mini-Hershey candy bars. When he gets home from work, I'll wait until he gets settled in his easy chair, then I'll slip outside, ring the doorbell, yell, "May basket!" and leave his treat on the porch before running to the backyard. (I don't think I'll go so far as driving off!) He will laugh at me and dig into the chocolate.
You're never too old to enjoy the sweet, first day of May.
5 comments:
I remember doing this in elementary school. That was centuries ago.
Yes, I am on blogger and I check your blog every morning as well..As for one of Lucy's lives being lost at my hands, I plea the 5th. It was soo much funny hearing Clint moan about that stupid thing! It was so much fun I couldn't help myself numerous times!!
Well, I'm glad to know you are not a May basket virgin. Kenley and you need to have a little arts and crafts project today and make one for Daddy!
I remembering sneaking thru the back yards to leave your May basket and going out the front way to skip home. I remember leaving construction paper woven creations filled with Necco wafers and bits of bridal wreath flowers. I took them down to Ricky's house too. And Michael's and RAT's! I remember leaving muffin liner ones on the Vosburgh's front stoop earlier than that (another Lincoln thing). I ranked May Baskets way above Halloween, which I never liked and don't to this day. It was almost as good as Valentine's Day.
The Big Bore is lucky to have you!
MAY BASKET!!!! This is NOT High Margin, by the way, as you probably figured out by now!
Yeah, Diva, you had me confused there at first! I took a May basket to the gals at the library, too. Still had some leftover mini Hershey bars, which BB discovered and devoured in no time. ---Oh, yes, the woven baskets were cool. They took me a long time to make, so I stuck with the oragami type with the four pockets. Necco wafers????
I can remember doing May baskets too. I loved it until I got a spanking for stealing some of the neighbor's flowers to give my mom.
:(
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