A New Start, A New Season...!

You know, like all of the celebrations we have in modern times, the modern day celebrations of the 1ST of May come from long ago.

When I was a kid in grade school (a 100 years ago) we used to have to dance around the Maypole while holding long ribbons tied to the top. At the end of the dance, the Maypole would be all wrapped up. I believe this little festival was called "May fete" or something akin to that!

For all I know, we could have been engaging in some type of pagan ritual or something! Not that there would have been anything necessarily wrong with that, but the thing is...I don't ever remember anyone teaching us any history behind what we were doing.

Anyway, we had fun, got to dance for the parents, dress in costumes ( I don't remember what kind) and best of all...didn't have classes for the rest of the day!

Now you know that the Hermit's mind is a vast warehouse of totally useless trivia, and I thought I would astound you with a bit of trivia about May 1ST over the years! OK, OK...so I didn't get it from my memory, but stole it from the Old Farmers Almanac!

It's true that my memory is like a vast warehouse, unfortunately that warehouse is mostly empty! Anyway, here are some interesting happenings from prior Mays...hope you enjoy this!

May 1, 1707 Great Britain formed

May 1, 1830Birth of labor activist Mary “Mother” Jones

May 1, 1931 The Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City

May 1, 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize

May 1, 1961 Harper Lee won Pulitzer Prize for her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird

May 1, 1967 Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas

That's all the dates I'm gonna give you for now. After all, this is NOT a cram session for a test or anything, but merely is for information purposes, OK?

Now , MAY (pun intended) I suggest that we get a fresh cup of coffee and adjourn to the patio, my friend?