It’s May Day today! Growing up in South Dakota, May Day always brought with it a tradition that we kids just loved, which was the annual making of the May Basket. Interestingly, I have lived in five other states in my adult years and no one in these other regions seems to have this May Day memory.

We South Dakotans honored the May basket tradition yearly, which consisted of assembling a basket of treats and maybe a few flowers, and then putting them on a friend’s doorstep, ringing the bell, and then running off so they could be surprised. In our neighborhood, we basically just skipped the surprise aspect and delivered the goodies in person to the door. Maybe this is because between three houses alone, there were 22 kids running about! Pretty hard to surprise anyone with that sort of activity!

If you have never made a May Basket, let me explain the process. First off, the basket could be most anything you had around your house. Paper Cups were usually the baskets of choice in our neighborhood. Do you remember those waxy paper cups back then ? That’s what we’d use. I believe it was usually a “Dixie” brand cup. Then for the handle we’d poke a pipe cleaner through both sides to create the effect. I remember paper doilies being used to decorate the cups too. The contents usually involved finding what you had around the kitchen, and if you were lucky, maybe your mom let you go uptown and get some mints or nuts to add to the cup. Little mini marshmallows were a given as we seemed to always have those on hand, as well as a stale bag of chocolate chips. Usually by May 1 there were flowers in bloom that you might add to the whole look as well, although I think we were usually more interested in the treats.

Since we had such big families in the neighborhood, the May Baskets were usually lined up on a tv tray (remember those?) and then delivered. The families involved in our neighborhood were the two Curry families. Cathy and Jim Curry had nine children like us, and Ed and Jackie Curry had four children. The Ed and Jackie Curry family, being a little more organized, (less kids?) got their baskets delivered to us first. We all followed suit and by the end of the afternoon, May Day had been truly celebrated in grand style!

Now as I write this, I realize the whole event was truly quite a simple little thing, but to us, it was a wonderful sign of Spring. I think the pure joy of being outside on a day in May, weather finally warmer and blooms coming up here and there, was the real celebration…. that and the friendships. We were so blessed with a neighborhood full of kids. We all loved playing outside once Spring arrived. (and I am sure the moms, Ginny, Cathy and Jackie loved that too!) May Day was a celebration of friendship, Springtime, and just the joy of being kids who looked forward to the little things in life. Truly, it did not take much to entertain us!

Happy May Day to all of you. I can’t send you a May Basket, but I send you the above photo of a handful of flowers I picked in my father-in-law Marvin’s yard on Easter Sunday. My mother-in-law Ruth planted beautiful flowers over the years, and though she’s gone now, those flowers live on. So, enjoy the bouquet from us, and maybe tell someone Happy May Day today!…and get going on those nuts, mints, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows!