A FORGOTTEN TRADITION MAY BASKET DAY

May 1st – “May Day” - has traditionally been a time to celebrate a time of renewal, rebirth, a fresh beginning.  It was originally a Pagan holiday to celebrate spring at its peak and the coming of summer and there was a whole day of festivities that included making of May Baskets, dancing around a May Pole and crowning of the “Queen of the May”.  It was particularly popular in the US in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Now, it is considered quaint and barely remembered by most people.  However, May 1st is still celebrated in many countries around the world with their own customs and reasons to celebrate.

Making of May Baskets was one of the most popular traditions, and children of the 1940’s probably still remember making them.  The custom was to make a small basket from various materials, paper plates, small cardboard containers, or creating a cone from construction paper, attaching a handle of some sort, decorating it with paper doilies, colored paper, paint, ribbons, etc. and filling it with small flowers, ferns, and sometimes candy.  It was then hung anonymously on the recipient’s door knob with a knock on the door and a yell, “May basket”.   The person would then run away.  If the recipient caught the giver, he or she was entitled to a kiss.

Although May Baskets are not a common custom anymore, you can find all kinds of directions, patterns, and materials for making them on the internet.  Does this peak your interest?  Maybe you can restart the tradition in your family. Here are some suggestions for making a simple May Basket. Just follow this link. If you want to learn more about Maypoles, here's a link. In the Celtic countries like Ireland and Scotland, May 1st is Beltane and denotes the first day of summer.

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE.

Joseph Denis, The Coin Man

 JOSEPH L. DENIS (1882 – 1959)

The spotlight today is on a man known to his friends and acquaintances in the Kezar Falls area in the 1940’s and 1950’s as “Joe, the Coin Man”.  Joe lived in the sparsely settled hills of Parsonsfield in a little house by the side of the road.  He was an authority on and a collector/seller of coins.

The following brief biography was written by Joe, himself, for the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society. He obviously had a sense of humor and didn’t take himself too seriously.  Yet the last paragraph shows that he was very serious about how he lived his life.  From the bits and pieces we have been able to put together about him, he must have been an interesting man.

When, Where and Why I Was Born

By Joseph L. Denis - 1956

I was born in Three Rivers, Canada on the 17th of September 1882.  I note that a great many prominent men were born on the same date.  My birth may not interest you, but to me it was the greatest beginning I ever had; without it no such person as I would have lived.

I had no control of the place of my birth, if so and it was to be done over, I would be born in Texas.  My mother said I was so ugly that she did not take me out in public for six months and if I had not been the first born she would have thrown me away.  But for 74 years I have so improved in looks that now I am really a handsome man and the mirror is the most interesting piece of furniture on the place.

I think I was born that I might live to serve humanity and God by being considerate of others, wearing a smile of sunshine and happiness, chasing the blues from those I meet, making cheerful the downcast and dying in peace with man and God.

The following article from the Portland Press Herald tells us

Joe Denis Has Lots of Money, But He’s Not a Wealthy Man.

Telegram and Sunday Press Herald – Portland, Maine – December 28, 1952

Seventy year old Joe L. Denis of North Parsonsfield walked a long, long road to reach his coin-lined camp alongside Route 160.  It was a walk that started in jobless depression days and took him by foot from Boston over most of northern New England.  Twice he started from Boston to Waterville, looking for work.  He hiked from the Hub to Brattleboro, VT, and another jaunt after jobs took him to the Dead River country and into New Vineyard.  He farmed at New Vineyard for a while.  Then worked his way to Parsonsfield where he was employed on the Leavitt Plantation for several years.

He now ekes out a lonely bachelor’s life on a $42 monthly old age grant.  His wasn’t always a bachelor’s life, though.  His first wife died long ago.  He has been separated from his second for many years.

Although Joe has a wealth of coins in his valuable collections he looks on himself as a poor man.  The coins, to him, are like, say, a piece of furniture to someone else.  They’re just property.  Not that he wouldn’t be above selling a few for a good offer.  He turns over an infrequent dollar doing just that.  But the occasional visit of another collector to his isolated place couldn’t be called a thriving trade by any man’s estimate.

He limits his collection to U.S. coins, from cents to silver dollars.  His oldest dates from 1793.  None of them are exceptionally valuable.  His best half dollar might be worth $20 to a hungry collector.

Denis is organizer and perennial president of the Kezar Falls Stamp and Coin Club.  He and a generous dozen fellow collectors have kept the club going for about five years.

Denis says the little wood chopping he does these cool days and his coin collecting are the best ways he knows for a lonely oldster like himself to retain a lively interest in life.

Oh, yes; and a little hiking too.  He still takes an occasional walk downtown to Kezar Falls.  Distance: six miles each way.  But not much for a man used to such a stroll.

And Joe Denis sure ought to be that man.

Joe Denis died March 20, 1959 and is buried at the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.