May Baskets

This year, May, 2006, spring was observed by illegal Latinos, in the largest work boycott ever seen in this country, demanding citizenship in the United States.

How different the culture is today compared to that of my childhood years. Dancing round a May Pole and giving May Baskets to friends on May 1st are charming customs no longer in vogue. When I was a child we celebrated spring by making small baskets from paper and ribbons. After folding paper into little boxes or curling them into cones with ribbon handles, we filled them with flowers and candies to give as presents to school mates, teachers and neighbors.

Part of the fun was to secretly put them on door steps or hang them on door knobs, then dart out of sight after ringing the door bell or knocking on the door. When the recipient answered the door they would find the basket and wonder who gave it.

My sister Adeline and I competed with each other in making our baskets prettier than the ones we received. We filled them with wild violets and daises and a few after dinner mints in pastel colors, raisins and shelled peanuts. We had as much fun making them as giving them away. After delivering a basket, sometimes we would watch from behind a shrub or tree to see the surprised reaction on a recipient’s face as they discovered our basket.

Of our neighbors, Mrs. Jones, who lived two doors from us, received the most May Baskets. Because we could hide more easily after ringing her door bell, many of the kids in the neighborhood including all my brothers and sisters, took turns leaving baskets on her door step. For several hours after school until dark, on the first day of May, she was kept busy answering her doorbell. At the time, we assumed her surprise and delight in finding the baskets, but today, I wonder if she was as good a sport as we believed. In any case, we never had a hint of annoyance or frustration. I would like to think she had as much fun receiving them as we did giving them.