
Hi it’s Saturday and time for LindaGHill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. #SoCs. This week Linda said :“ Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “may.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!“
The May Day Possession.
May Day, I am carrying Dad’s Lilley of the Valley, a huge bunch. They smell absolutely beautiful. The sky is so blue and there are puffy little clouds floating around.
I am wearing my summer school uniform, so I am still in the junior part of the school. A powder blue pleated dress, a wide yolk at the front topped with a white collar. At the waste a belt that joins buttons at front. My blonde hair is in neat plaits, but as usual the unruly whisps are escaping around my face….that will get me scolded by the nuns. On top of my head is my straw Panama hat with the school badge. I have fresh white knee length socks and my sensible brown sandals.
I walk the two miles to school so proud of Dad’s flowers. Sister Margarite is waiting at the gate, she tells me off because my socks are not quite up to my knees and my unruly hair. I was never in her good books…she always had something to scold me for.
Today though I did not let her upset me, it was the first school Monday in May and time for the May day possession. The statue of Our Lady, Queen of the May was to be carried from the gate at the junior’s part of the school around the roads to the front of the senior school and through to the front lawn outside the main convent house.
I was always so proud because Dad’s flowers were used to decorate the statue’s head with a crown of Lilly of the Valley. The statue was carried on a plinth by four girls, and we all processed, some infront of the Virgin Queen of the May and the rest behind scattering petals on to the road and singing hymns to the Virgin Mary. How ever hard I tried to be good, try as I may, I was never picked to be a barer of the statue.
And here is the hymn we sang.
May 01, 2021 @ 05:12:24
Lovely memories! 💜
May 01, 2021 @ 17:24:01
Yes indeed , so long ago but still fresh 💜
May 01, 2021 @ 07:45:21
Lovely memories
May 01, 2021 @ 17:22:46
Thank you it is lovely looking back 💜💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 22:06:31
Good memories will always bring a smile to your face
May 02, 2021 @ 05:41:30
Yes indeed they will 💜
May 02, 2021 @ 06:08:27
❤️
May 01, 2021 @ 12:50:55
I had a friend who was Queen of the May in grade school. For a number of years, I would call her up on May 1st and wish her Happy Queenie Day without the singing.
May 01, 2021 @ 17:19:23
Lol , you should of sang to her 💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 14:50:55
What a lovely vision of you walking to school. Truly beautiful. I think you should have been chosen to be the barer of the statue. Let everyone who wanted take a turn for part of the way. But tossing petals behind sounds lovely too.
May 01, 2021 @ 17:20:38
It was and we were all so proud to do this and we ways loved singing that hymn 💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 17:33:53
Great memory, Willow. Some day you will be oicked.
May 01, 2021 @ 17:37:35
Lol I doubt it 💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 20:18:13
What happened to my “p”in picked. Did you take it?
May 01, 2021 @ 20:47:20
I guessed it was picked, but as I have not been at school for 52yrs it’s not likely b😊😊😂💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 21:44:21
“Oh Mary We Crown Thee” is what I call a Catholic Drinking Song, something that gets sung in taverns after everyone is sufficiently well oiled…
May 01, 2021 @ 20:49:02
Lol we imagine an entire convent school of girl’s singing it….it still makes me smile ….💜💜
May 01, 2021 @ 23:56:31
We boys tended to sing it with a little too much gusto…
May 02, 2021 @ 05:40:44
Lol I bet you did 💜😉
May 02, 2021 @ 00:26:52
What a fine memory…
May 02, 2021 @ 05:40:19
It was lovely 💜
May 02, 2021 @ 08:55:07
What a lovely memory, Willow. The nuns were also strict about hair, weren’t they? I remember the same. We used to have elastic bands to hold our socks up. You folded the top of the sock over the elastic band.
May 02, 2021 @ 09:04:57
That’s right, it could not of done our circulation any good 💜💜💜
May 03, 2021 @ 12:50:33
Great memory😍
May 03, 2021 @ 13:26:09
Thank you 💜
May 06, 2021 @ 17:25:58
What a lovely memory, Willow – even if you never did get picked. I love that you didn’t let the mean nun bring you down!
May 06, 2021 @ 16:18:07
Lol May Day was the one day I shone, because of Dad’s flowers 💜💜
May 06, 2021 @ 17:04:15
Of course this would be way up there on cherished memories…🧡🧡
May 06, 2021 @ 17:06:12
Those Nuns did their best to beat me down but never on May Day … Never on May Day 💜💜