May Day!

It's one of my favorite days of the year. 

As a kid I remember coming home to a dixie cup on our front stoop one day. Inside was popcorn and raisins and M&M's. 

It had a pipe cleaner for a handle and that was it. No note. No clues. 

My mom's eyes got big and said... It's May Day! I was still perplexed. 

We ran inside and frantically began digging through our cupboards to see what we could find. It became a trail mix of sorts. Some cereal, with popcorn, whatever nuts we had and marshmallows. We didn't have dixie cups so I vaguely remember using coffee filters or something! lol

Either way I was so elated with the idea that for no reason other than the fact that it was the first of May, we randomly got a little basket of goodness on our front steps! And it wasn't the only one... The moms in the neighborhood must have all realized or at least caught on that this is what we did. So as we headed out the door armed with our own little "May baskets" to deliver, we stumbled upon a few more baskets sitting on our front porch. 

I learned that the idea is not to be seen or "caught" giving away your May baskets. So my mom and I carefully snuck around the neighborhood leaving our little goodies. I still didn't quite understand why we did this... but let's be honest - who cares!? :)

As I got older of course, May Day became a little less important... especially since it falls during Prom, graduation, First Communion, mowing the lawn... life I suppose. But when I went away to college it hit me on the first of May one day and I ran home and made the most elaborate May Baskets I'd ever made. 

They were peanut butter Rice Krispie treats with Peanut M&M's shaped like hearts and tied with little bows that I delivered to my college girlfriends. They laughed... and then the next year when I was living in Canada and nobody got a May Basket - they started to appreciate the little things. 

I eventually went back and year after year, I've tried my best to remember to keep the tradition alive. 

Eventually it became an expectation at my office. Popcorn balls were a big hit one year and I had 4 of the most beautiful rose bushes outside my apartment building... that each May Day everyone also got a rose... We all know the problem with that though - man did expectations - even from myself,  get high! ha ha

Well... no roses this year - but a lot of little kids live in my neighborhood and I hope if I start out easy with some popcorn, cereal and marshmallows... they'll have something to aspire to just like I did...

Happy May Day!

Pop!

Someone sent me this cartoon before I left... and boy was it pertinent.

 It was very hot.

I meant that as in the sound corn makes when it gets hot and turns into popcorn. But for those of you who aren't from the midwest... it's also what we call that flavored fizzy drink that comes in a can. Pop :) One of the many reasons I love coming home - to see signs on the road advertising Pop, and glad I'm not the only one wondering if they have Mello Yellow. (it's back you know...)

I made a rule that the bike could not stop moving until it was in the shade. Rule #2 was that when I started getting mad because I was too hot I was required to find a frozen snickers :) Needless to say I contributed my fair share to the Mars brand... until I came across my beloved Schwan's man... oh how I've missed the Shwans man and his Schwan's truck. They used to drive around your neighborhood selling frozen food, but the only thing we ever got was a box of ice cream sandwiches once in a blue moon.

The last day of RAGBRAI my butt was in a lot of pain, I was tired and hot and the end was in sight, which is actually not a good thing. Needless to say I demanded that the semi pull over if only for the memories...

I've found a lot of things from my childhood are not nearly as impressive as they were when I was a kid. You know that house down the street that seemed like a mansion, only when you drove by last summer just to check it paled in comparison to your recollection. Or... I had a teacher who I thought was absolutely beautiful when I was in elementary school. Years later I asked my parents if she really was the most beautiful woman in the world and they looked at me rather puzzled because although she wore Exclamation perfume... there wasn't much else to exclaim about... (the slogan for the perfume was "make a statement...without saying a word!" ha I think you can still buy it at Wal-Mart!

Well I can tell you that although I've had a lot of other kinds of ice cream sandwiches that may actually have more pizzazz, more girth, and a lot more calories... the reminiscing that overcame me while that ice cream sandwich melted in my hands made up for it.
But... I would like to say that although a few things haven't held up as well as my memories may have recalled... The movie Goonies, The Boy Who Could Fly, and pop from a big glass bottle have stood the test of time.

I can't find The Boy Could Fly, but Luckily Goonies is on tv for free all the time and pop counts as food...  so do ice cream sandwiches :)