Happy May Day ~ Happy Birthday Kate Smith

Hello To All!

I hope that this post finds you well on this May Day.

So what is May Day other than and distress signal? Actually it is rather interesting.

In the Celtic traditions, pre-Christianity, May Day signified the festival of Beltane. Which was the start of the summer season. The herds of livestock were driven to the fields and a new fire was built that would be kept going all the way til it was time for the next festival.

May Day is also a cross quarter day, marking the half way point between the sun's journey from spring equinox and the summer solstice.

The May Pole was a fixture in many towns and was decorated for this festival to signify to new growth and vitality of Spring. Traditions like hanging flowers on doors of the homes in the villages and picking a May Queen become more prominent in the late 1700's and are of the British and Puritan influence.

In the late 1800's May Day became the symbol of international labor as worker's gathered together to demand better working conditions including the 8 hour work day. This relates to the Haymarket Square affair in 1886 Chicago. After employees decide to strike a machinery plant when fellow workers were killed due to unsafe conditions. This lead to further protest, a bombing in the crowd with a lot of bloodshed and the eventual public hanging of 7 convicted criminals. Ewww

In 1958 President Eisenhower signed a proclamation naming May 1 as Loyalty Day. A day to re-proclaim our loyalty to our country. Some areas of the country celebrate this with parades and festivals.

Which brings us to our Birthday Shout Out which is the late Kate Smith. Today she would have been 92. She was a talented singer that was featured on radio shows in the 1930's and beyond. Her most memorable recording was her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America".




You had a wonderful gift Ms. Smith and we are all grateful for you sharing it.

So we have come full circle celebrating the beginning of the growing season, to the celebration of labor to the very reminder why we as so blessed with the freedoms we have.

Go out and dance around the May Pole or just brings some fresh flowers in your home. Celebrate what a great country we have. And celebrate all of those who fight to keep our country great!

Taking the Facebook Plunge

Hello To All!

This is the second time I woke up this morning. The first I was up at 3:15 am to get my husband off to work, I blogged on my other blog, Twittered a bit and then hit the hay for two more hours. Now I am up for sure to do the rest of my day!

My etsy store. I have some new and improved photography on some of the listings. The rest will be improved soon with new listings as well!

I took the Facebook plunge last night. Actually I had signed up for Facebook in 2007 and never went on it or anything. It had been so long that I had to reset my password. I searched around on there, saw some people I know, it was cool. My main purpose is to meet more people to do business with. You never know!

On Twitter a fellow tweeter @janeblogs gave this link for funny shoes. You have to check out the site. My personal fav is the bird sandals about two-thirds of the way down the page.

I have been trying to ignore the whole Rush Limbaugh vs.White House banter but now it gets absurd! Check out this story. RL wants to debate the President to see who "owns" America.

For starters, I am an American and I am not owned by anyone!

Secondly, I read the article and there are points in there that I could agree with, then it goes beyond agreeable to RL just being the arse that he is. I might remind RL that the President might not do anything/everything right. It is really a crapshoot. But, considering the pit that the other party left us in, the one that we are trying to claw ourselves out of, RL should just put a sock in it! Own America my butt!

Today's birthday shout out is for the late Andy Gibb. He would have been 51. (I did a double take when I figured this out then realized that I am 44 so 51 works for him!) He had a great career and unfortunately he got caught up in the fame, got addicted to drugs, got clean and died of a heart infection shortly after. What a shame.

I have the most pleasant memories of the time he was popular, hanging out with my friend Ann from across the street or Melody from two doors down. I had an AM transistor radio, one that was shaped like the smiley face and we would listen all the time WLS-AM and hear Andy Gibb, the BeeGees, Elton John, Donny Osmond and all the others. We were so cool! And we were so sure Andy was singing right to us....big sigh.

So now I leave you with my fav Andy Gibb song. Mr. Gibb, thank you!





Have a great day! Look for me on Twitter and Facebook!