May Day – It's On My Mind

May 1, 2020 (Friday)

Today is May 1.

The Encyclopedia says, “May Day on May 1 is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes.” Its origins go back thousands of years.
I remember the May pole celebration in elementary school. One year we dressed in western clothes and danced around the pole to “put your little foot.” The next year we danced around the pole again, this time as little sailors to the tune of “Sailing, sailing over the bounding main.” Then I moved on to the 5th grade in another school, and I don’t remember doing anything special for “May Day.” The year was 1942, the war was on; I guess we had “put away childish things.” Those were serious times. All the children (and teachers too, I think) were fingerprinted in case the schools were bombed we could possibly be identified. Before the semester ended, we all went out into the community and collected scrap metal for the war effort.

Changing the subject, May 1 is always special for me personally because it is the anniversary of our moving into this house in 1970 — 50 years ago today. Our oldest was not yet 16 years of age, and the others were 14, 10, 6, and 3. We had many happy days together in this house as they grew up. We had already lived in Rockport for nearly 6 years, next door to the present funeral home, which at that time was the location of the long-time residence of Mrs. Beatley, who, in her 90’s, mowed her own big yard. We took a vacation shortly after moving in. Here’s a 50-year-old picture of the kids at Carlsbad Caverns, on our way to Disneyland.

– Dwight Dianna Debbie Dan David –
Carlsbad Caverns 1970

“Mayday” has been a distress signal since 1923, and was chosen because it sounds like a French word which means “Help me.” It has nothing to do with May 1, the holiday.

“Mayday” might have been appropriate on August 3,1970, three months
after we moved in, when Hurricane Celia hit us. This is how our house looked back then. (Looks much better today — not damaged in Harvey).

Here’s Google’s snapshot before Harvey:

It looked a lot nicer when Wanda had flowers and plants everywhere. She loved her yard.

This is a special day in Texas, when we join some of the other states in loosening some of the restrictions brought on by the pandemic. Let us pray that it all works out so that we can get back to more normal days.