Do you remember May Basket Day?
<p>Penny Inglis, 71, talks on Wednesday in her Coeur d'Alene home about her desire to keep the tradition of May baskets alive.</p>
<p>May baskets, full of flowers, inspirational poems, candy and small trinkets, rest on the kitchen counter of Penny Inglis' Coeur d'Alene home on Wednesday. Inglis began delivering baskets similar to these when she was a child, and has continued the tradition and included her extended family in the annual event.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE — When Penny Inglis was a little girl growing up in South Dakota, all the children in her town could not wait for the first of May.
They would pick dandelions and collect other trinkets and place them in cupcake holders. Then, on the evening before May 1, they would sneak up to someone's house, leave the little basket on the doorstep, knock and run until they could hide just out of sight. They would wait until their friend or neighbor opened the door and delight in the joy of their May basket being found.
It was extremely exciting for young girls to leave May baskets for the boys they crushed on, recalled 71-year-old Inglis.
"We could hardly wait 'til May Day to do that, especially to deliver one to the boy we liked," she said. "But we would always want to get caught by them."
When asked if the May basket method of wooing her crush worked, she chuckled and said, "No."
"He threw it in a mud puddle when he saw it was me," she said.
The world was a different place when stealthy, tittering children celebrated the simple joys of May Basket Day.
"We were poor, so we didn't have baskets or anything so we just did (cupcake holders)," Inglis said. "We made our own entertainment back then."
Inglis has made May baskets just about every year since she was a girl, and she has shared the tradition with her children and grandchildren.
On Wednesday, her kitchen counter was covered with small baskets filled with treats, little books, lotions, decorative flowers and other gifts she collected throughout the year to surprise her friends and neighbors.
Each basket had a little note that read, "Do you remember May Day? Dropping small gifts at your neighbors' and loved ones' doors and hiding in the bushes to see their delighted faces? Start the tradition once again with your family. Happy May Basket Day!"
Inglis' granddaughters will be helping her secretly deliver them Saturday evening because "I always try to do it on the sly," she said.
"It's exciting trying not to get caught," said granddaughter Emily Spellman, 13.
Inglis' daughter, Petrina Spellman of Coeur d'Alene, said she remembers making and delivering May baskets with her mom when she was young.
"I still can’t believe she’s doing this," Petrina said. "I remember when I was a kid, my mom would drive the car and I would have to run up to the house, ring the doorbell, take off, jump in her car, hoping not to get caught."
Inglis said she's not sure how this spring ritual originated, but she certainly remembers the excitement of collecting the contents and hiding in people's bushes while she waited for them to open their doors.
"I guess it's a sign of spring, new life," she said.
May Day, or May 1, is halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice and is a day steeped in tradition. In ancient times, and even not so ancient, people would make merry around a Maypole to celebrate the beginning of the warm season.
"When we were in school, we had one big pole and we would put ribbons on the pole and we would dance around the Maypole," Inglis said. "Holding the ribbon, we would sing and dance around the Maypole. They were all different colored ribbons, I remember that. We’d dance and sing, whether it was raining or whatever."
National Public Radio's history department calls May Basket Day a "forgotten tradition" in an April 2015 article that examines the popularity of May baskets in the 19th and 20th centuries.
"Maybe there really was a time when America was more innocent," the article reads.
Grace Kimball, another one of Inglis' granddaughters, said she thinks it's pretty cool her grandma continues to make May baskets and keeps something from a bygone era alive.
"I love it," Kimball said. "I think that she carries on a lot of traditions that her generation does that are going to go to the wayside when they’re all gone."
But Inglis doesn't want May baskets to go by the wayside. She wants the tradition to find new life in modern times so people will continue to make nice gestures and be thoughtful to each other. She said this is probably going to be her last year making them, so she wants her grandkids, at the very least, to begin their own May basket traditions to treasure when she is gone.
"You got to do kindness to make people happy. There’s not enough kindness in this world," she said, pointing to a decoration on her kitchen wall. "I’m a firm believer in this sign right here: 'Take time for kindness.'"
Petrina said her mom has always been thoughtful and generous, especially when it comes to May Basket Day.
"She doesn't think about herself," Petrina said. "She’s always thinking of other people."
"It makes people happy," Penny said. "A lot of people, older people, they know about May Basket Day."