Another Kind Of May Day

Tuesday, May 1 2012 is supposed to be the biggest, largest protest extravaganza in the history of the world. Compared to a Barnum & Bailey circus parade coming to town today's protests will even top one of these or so the radical elements tell us. Every world-wide group of anarchists, socialists, communists, occupiers, green peacers, etc. will be parading and marching. They might even be blowing up buildings and bridges for all I know. It's my hope they do make idiots out of themselves. It gives us normal folks the chance to see what governments have wrought. It'll also put a lot of pressure on the supporters of 99%'ers to do a back shuffle.
I've always considered May 1 the unofficial beginning of spring. A very irreverent friend of mine used to shout: "Hooray, hooray, the first of May, outdoor sex begins today"!
When I think of May Day my memory takes me back to first grade. I wonder if kids still celebrate a non-revolutionary May 1. That was the day we gave candy in a basket to our sweethearts. We had May baskets to take to school but so as to not hurt someones feelings everyone got one. The basket would be filled with the little heart shaped candies; like the ones we gave on Valentines that said, 'be mine'. Candy corn was a big item for the basket, too. My mom was an expert at making May Day baskets. She took two large pieces of chiffon and with scissors snipped a number of cuts and all of a sudden the papers became a  basket with see through holes on the bag that went up and down when it was lifted. At the bottom was a nice little area for those luscious sweets.
My hero on May Day was Steve Roeder. Since I had friends who went to the public school , like Steve, we'd buddy up on May Day and go around to a girls house to give them their gift. Steve had a brother who was seven years older than us so he had the advantage of learning what the 'big guys' did. When Stevie was in the second grade he was allowed to buy a pair of wing tip shoes; just like his brother, Big Al. To this very day Steve is Mr. Dapper.
Anyway, on this particular May Day, we knew that Sandy Nickel was going to bring Steve a May basket. When I write 'we' I'm including Dick Musser because Dick and I went everywhere together. What we did was watch Steve do his thing. Off to the side of  the Roeder's front porch was a large fir tree. We three hid behind it and waited for little Miss Nickel to come up the walk. Just when she was halfway to the door Steve said, "watch this". Sandy dropped the goodies basket, rang the doorbell and turned to walk away. She was too late. Steve jumped from behind the tree and planted a big kiss on her. That's what was supposed to happen on this day. Muss and I were in awe. It took a lot of moxie to plant a smooch on a second grader. Shoot! It took me another year to give my first girl friend, Marsha McCoy, a wet one and I was sitting next to her at their family piano.
I need to ask my grandchildren if they have May Day. If not it seems like another fun tradition down the drain. One thing I know for sure: my grandkids won't be wearing pea green caps with a red star emblazoned on the front. I wonder if Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn's parent's gave them May Day baskets? Probably not. It's fairly difficult placing a hand grenade in a candy basket.