Harwell Avenue May Pole

Harwell Avenue May Pole

May Day! May Day!
That call meant something different to the youngsters at Harwell Avenue School in 1958. To the boys, it was like a distress signal because they had to dress up and dance with girls around the May pole. But to the girls, the very thought of May Day brought visions of wearing pretty sundresses complete with starched crinolines and dancing with boys.

It was a tradition in our grammar school to celebrate the first of May by presenting a program filled with singing songs about springtime, dancing with a spring in our steps, and intertwining colorful ribbons around a tall pole that stood in the middle of the playground. Every grade was involved in the festivities, but the sixth graders had the honor of wrapping the May pole with the ribbons. Prior to the special day, there would be a week of making garlands from hundreds of hand-made flowers. We fashioned these blossoms out of layers of tissue paper and green floral tape to use as decorations.

I remember practicing our program out on the hot dusty playground for several weeks in April. None of the girls liked getting all sweaty or dirty, but we endured the practices because we loved the idea of dressing in our Sunday finest and dancing on the actual day of the event. It was just the opposite with the boys! Teaching us the part of weaving the pastel colored lengths of wide ribbon over and under as we marched and dipped, danced and skipped our way around the pole, was probably a teacher's nightmare. Where to stand and in which direction to go, trying to stay in sync with the lively music playing on the record player -- all that choreography was a mystery to some of the children in the beginning. However, on the first of May, it was our time to shine in the sun. Everyone knew his part, and the spring program went smoothly all morning long.

Back in the 1950's when all this was taking place, there was no air conditioning in the schools, and I don't even recall there being floor fans in the school rooms to cool us off. We may have looked pretty or handsome when we went to school on the morning of May first, but by the time we gathered back in the classrooms after wrapping the May Pole, we neither looked nor smelled fresh as May flowers at all. Anyone walking down the halls would have thought the school was housing a herd of little goats! But, that was May Day, and it rolled around like clockwork every year, leaving a tall pole wreathed in silky ribbons and happy children who had done their best.

Something just crossed my mind: I wonder who unwound the ribbons from the Harwell Avenue May pole every year?

Story ID:	2042
Written by:	Susan Hammett Poole (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family Memories
Writers Conference:	$500 2007 Family Memories Writing Project
Location:	LaGrange Georgia USA
Year:	1958
Person:	myself