Cheers to May baskets, birthdays and fast horses

I love my birthday month of May, which I celebrate all month long with a hundred or so Main Street Birthday Club friends, starting with May Day, the Kentucky Derby, Cinco deMayo, Mother’s Day, then Memorial Day. I can stretch out a celebration like nobody’s business.

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Are May poles and May baskets still a thing? Fond memories of my youth with the playground tetherball pole transformed with ribbons for May Day and delivering little construction paper baskets of flowers to the neighbors to celebrate the beauty and abundance of spring. May 1 falls halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.

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Full disclosure, I have no inside information or really no knowledge of any of the field of horses running for the roses in Saturday’s 152nd Kentucky Derby.

When I was a little girl accompanying my grandmother to Santa Anita, she told me to always bet on a gray. I’m assuming because there are so few gray thoroughbreds, but who knows? This year, there are no grays in the 20-horse Derby field. But the first alternative if any of the main 20 horses are withdrawn due to injury or illness is the beautiful gray, Great White. I’m also a sucker for a longshot and as of three days before, two horses, Six Speed and Intrepido, are at 50-1 odds. Now you know why I’m not a professional gambler and only follow the Triple Crown horse races for fun. Here’s to big hats, mint juleps, long shots, seer sucker, fast horses and $2 bets.

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Happy Main Street birthday today to Steve Wilson, Tanner Mort, Chris Cooper, Stephanie Brodwater, Jeremy Jones, Patty Muhlhauser and Susan O’Neill. On the last day of April Bailey Jaworski, Michele Jensen, Amy Lyons, Christina Bollman, Keith Ekness, Luke Griffin, Louise Zimmerman and Jai Nelson will celebrate. First day of May greetings to Marlee Eldridge, Jeri DeLange and Suanne Harris. On Saturday, Becca Atkinson, John Deluca, Jan Bryant, Miranda Hamilton, Tre Lewis and Randy Hurt put on their party hats. Randy Bates, Destiny Johnson, Jim Thorpe, Tracy Flaa, Peter Willits, John Hayes, Robbie Canfield, Brooke Harris and Becky Camarata take another trip around the sun on Sunday. Kay Poland (60!), Kenley Link, Jeanette Bangs, Garrett Brown, Scott Hayden, Rand Wichman, Brittany Smith and Scott Jacobson celebrate Monday. Cinco de Mayo birthdays for Liz Thorpe, Ben Miller, Joni McCroury, Carol Toomy, Lisa Peterson, Teri Farr, Angela Erickson, Faith Brodwater and Andy Fischbacher.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email [email protected].