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Pundits, commentators and the like have been discussing parts of the societal fallout of the most recent pandemic. Making comparisons from historical events to the present is a common and necessary course of dialogue, and one of the current topics includes predicting if society will be similarly impacted as it was post the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
Will we, as a nation, throw ourselves into another version of the Roaring Twenties, which were the result of many factors colliding into economic and social avenues? Some say that generation’s end of the pandemic did lead some people to, shall we say, dive into a bit of high livin’. Still others found reasons to curtail and more intentionally cull their lifestyle decisions.
I stand conflicted, but I’m leaning more toward maintaining a connection to the simpler things in life, which led me to featuring in this issue ways to create May baskets. I so fondly remember making May basket art in grade school to bring home to my parents and race walking home from school to get the popcorn popped; paper cones glued, decorated and filled with little candies or tiny flower buds; and the red wagon loaded up for my trip down the street to deliver the goods.
Our children, too, participated in the annual tradition but in a smaller way. Now, it seems I see fewer and fewer May baskets sweetly dangling from neighborhood doorknobs or children racing away after they made their deliveries, in hopes that the recipients wouldn’t “catch them” in the act.
If anyone is asking, I vote we encourage a concerted and earnest return to charm—to traditions that bring us together in small, gentle ways. Let’s give May’s arrival its proper due—ring the bell, and yell, “May basket!”
Until next time,
Renée Stewart-Hester
