May Day

It's Friday, May 1.  I woke up in such a good mood today despite some sad news back home:  and the sun is shining, my dog was snoring and work was good and I just felt happy.  I got very ambitious and took a morning shower and threw on a dress for the weekend.

And then I thought about why I'm so happy and I think it's tied to May Day.

When we were little, my mom encouraged us to make up baskets and pick flowers and leave them on our neighbor's doorsteps.  Kitty and I would create baskets of colored construction paper, and fill them with dandelions, daffidols, whatever we could pluck that had popped it's head out in the spring air.

We'd go around to our neighbors:  The Oates, the Johnsons, The Millers, the Briscoes, the Kubas and leave a little basket on their door, ring the bell and run away.

I have a pretty clear memory of doing this at the Oates, and Nancy Oates must have seen us and thought we were playing ding dong ditch, and yelled at us to stop ringing the doorbell.

Kitty and I were very polite and even a bit shy back then, so it really surprised us---there was this contradiction of what we intended vs what was perceived by the receiver.

My mom loved these old time German-ish traditions, and she also loved giving flowers as a gift.

I remember when the 25th anniversary parties rolled around--she'd always give a rose bush.  And, when the daffidol mound at Mimi's (her mother, my grandmother)...she'd have us pick them at Sunday brunch, and then take them to our teacher's the next day.  I felt shy of doing that---like, is this weird?

But now I realize that because Mimi was a teacher, and two of my aunts, my uncle were all teachers, she really encouraged us to be thankful for the service of that education.

Anyway, here I am in LA, typing away in my little apartment, looking out at the beautiful geranium I love and thinking, how lucky we are to have flowers in the world.  I'm really missing Ohio and Chicago and you know, humans but these flower cheer a girl up.

Happy may day!