Come for Coffee! Please come if you can to the 3rd WSG coffee at Lucie @ The Colonnade Hotel, Huntington Avenue, Boston, 9 am ish. MAY 3rd!!
Update! We have raised at least $2500 for Christopher’s HavenThank you to those who have donated. A little can go a long way.
I don’t have an interview this week. It was my birthday actually and that’s not my excuse. Lately, I have collected a bunch of very unique and interesting women whom I will interview soon. Keep commenting below, it’s fun to hear what you think!
I went out to dinner with my family for my birthday. While out to dinner I bumped into a family friend who reads WSG and said, “talk about birthdays!’ or maybe it was “Happy May day!” It’s hard to hear clearly in a restaurant. But, I always loved May Day as a kid, so I’ll talk about that for now.
The schools I went to from k-6th grade celebrated the somewhat pagen ritual of the May Pole. I’ll have to do a little research about the meaning of the May Pole but as a kid it meant putting on a long pretty spring dress circling around a tall pole with tons of long spring colored ribbons stretching to the ground. Boys and girls would alternate spaces and take up a ribbon. Every other person would face each other, walking in opposite directions. Then the music would start.
At my first school, k-5 we had a British music teacher. She was terrifying. She was not joyous. She had a tight expression to the point where there were millions of pucker lines around her mouth. It was how she held her face in resting position. Puckered. I don’t think she was a smoker, although everyone was in those days. Anyway. she was terrifying but a damn good music teacher. I can still play the school song on a recorder which is weird proof.
One of the songs for May day Pole was Oranges and Lemmons. I loved the music she taught us. It was traditional, but hearty. Like a stew. Most of the songs I remember from my British teacher’s class were anglo-christian based, some were hymms. We had kids from all walks of life in our class, my parents are Jewish and Episcopalian. I did not feel “unseen” by having to learn the music. Honestly, there’s a reason they were/are so popular. At Thanksgiving we sang We Gather Together at school assembly and I loved it. The song was written in 1597 by a dutchman. An English version came out in 1894 by Theodore Baker. I can’t experience Thanksgiving without thinking of the song. My kids have probably never heard it. It’s a shame, really. They even went to the same school that I did. I’m not sure why we can't keep the old songs and incorporate new cultures and songs. History is history. You can’t change it.
Back to the May Pole. Boys and girls facing each other in pairs all around the pole each holding the end of a long ribbon. The music starts then the kids would go over one person and under the next. over and under. Over and under until the whole pole was braided. Then, the kids would turn the opposite direction and under and over, under and over each other until it was unbraided. That was it. Sweet and simple. Happy May Day!
Lyrics for Oranges and Lemmons:
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells at Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells at Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell at Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead[1]
Another topic to look at sometime is why are children’s songs and fairytales so violent?
Thats all for this week…ran out of time…
Remember:
Come for Coffee! Please come if you can to the 3rd WSG coffee at Lucie @ The Colonnade Hotel, Huntington Avenue, Boston, 9 am ish. MAY 3rd!!
Wish I was home to go to coffee. Next one for sure!!