May Day Memories

By: Deb Petticrew

Why is it that I can’t remember where I put my glasses, my tv remote, or my car keys but I can remember every last little detail about something that happened 60 years ago? May was always a favorite month of mine. Of course, it meant that the school year was winding down and summer vacation was coming soon. But it also meant that we’d be planning plenty of May baskets! My siblings and I would spend the month shouting “May basket” on our parents, neighbors and friends all month long, but the one that I remember the most was the May basket that we did on our teacher.

I attended a two-room school house, and there were only three or four students in each grade. K-3 grades were on one side and 4-6 were on the other side. I was in the first grade that year and I remember hearing the older kids whispering about how much fun it would be to have a May basket on our teacher. Of course, this meant lots of secret planning and the bigger kids wouldn’t let the little ones help much but we managed to “help” as much as we could! The first thing on the agenda was finding the perfect box. It couldn’t be too small and it couldn’t be too big, so it could take some time to find the right one. Once the box was obtained, we went to work finding the decorations. Usually, we’d wrap it up in some pretty paper, sometimes adding fun drawings of our own, and of course, lots of pretty ribbon. I’m sure our mothers were bewildered at where some of their prettiest bows went! The next item on our list was the popcorn and candy. Each family popped up a bag of popcorn and provided candy for our basket. And so much candy there was!! Black Jacks, Tootsie Rolls, bubble gum, licorice, fudge, and caramels were some of the favorites.

It was hard to contain our excitement as the big day approached and I’m sure the teacher had her suspicions with all of the giggles and whispering that was going on! Finally, our box was ready and the big day arrived. After the final recess of the day, our teacher, Mrs. Beal, rang the big bell that brought all of the kids to the door to line up to go in. All of a sudden, we all shouted, “May basket on Mrs. Beal”! and off we ran. The big boys all ran across the street, into the woods where they were sure that nobody could catch them. Us younger kids were smarter than that! We knew that if we were caught quickly, we’d have the first shot at the popcorn and candy!! Once the teacher tagged us, we could tag others, so we made sure to tag all of our little friends as fast as we could and went inside with Mrs. Beal to get the best candy. By the time the bigger kids got back, there wasn’t much left in the basket but they were happy that they got out of the last class of the day, so it was a good day for everyone! I guess that now it will go into my “memory basket”, where I can take it out at my convenience and relive some of the best moments of my life. Now I just have to remember where in the world I put that phone charger…