May Day!

Hal-an-tow jolly rumble O!
We were Up
Long before the day-o,
To welcome in the summertime
To welcome in the May-o!
Summer is a com-ing in
And winter's gone away-o !

My 15th year in a row to be at Palo Alto Baylands before dawn to cheer on the Morris Dancers as they danced up the sun!

As always it started at 5:30am in slightly lessened darkness, To the sound of a lone piper 6 men clad in white holding antlers to their heads process in, weave around each other in patterns and sometimes clicking antlers with a partner then processing out. - no bells on.

There has to be another word for the way they move, no normal language expresses it well - sinuously sliding with a bit of rhthymic bounce - is about as close as I can manage.While they are doing the dance, they obviously are Stags not Men. I'm in love.

This is of course the Deer Creek Morris Men doing the ancient Abbott's Bromley Horn Dance. Yes technically this is supposed to be a September dance, not a May one, but it is always moving and such a wonderful way to start it off. There is no announcement or spoken words from the presenters before it begins, just the sound of the piper coming closer and the rhthymic sound of the dancers feet on the ground. I'm always amazed that each year a substantial portion of the crowd arrives too late for it. It's such a big deal to me not to miss that, that some years I've been the first person to arrive at the site, even before any of the dancers!

When they were through Mayfield Morris and Sword came skipping and jingling up the pier and into the dance area. Mad Molly came running in chaotically from all sides, and the teams each took turns dancing till the sun came up.

A raven squawked and flew toward us, then away, as if trying to call attention to himself during Mayfield's Sword -> Sun dance.

I missed seeing Deer Creek's Fool this year. I hope he is okay, I know nothing about why he was missing. The funniest year was the one in the early 90's when he had a rubber chicken with a sign that said "KOCK" around it's neck. He kept up a running commentary talking into the chicken's beak as if it were a microphone and he was reporting for KOCK radio. Lots of bawdy jokes, getting people to crow into it, great fun.

Mayfield also had a new dance to the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts" . This amused me, but it's not nearly so weird as it's having been used in a luxury car commercial some years ago!

And the "Morris Mini" ( as one of SS's students dubbed him) was quite cute. A boy about 4 years old, his mother dances with Mayfield, and his father with Deer Creek. He was dressed in a miniature Deer Creek uniform tiny leg bells and all. Sometimes he came out and imitated the adult Deer Creek men.

Woo hoo!

May 1, 1968 - 35 years ago today

is the day we moved to Japan. We being my mother (33), me (8), and my sister JB (6).

We left Oakland thinking that we would stay in Japan permanently. My mother hoped to get a job at an English language newspaper, we expected to go to a Japanese school, live in a Japanese style home, and be assimilated.

The preparations had taken a while. My mother took several Japanese language classes at UC Extension in SF and tried to teach us various words and phrases. We got passports and visas. We gave up most of our toys and all of our furniture. Packing a few special toys in boxes to be shipped over eventually, and a very few even more special toys to take with us, such as my small pink teddy bear "Cookie". My mother sold the stereo, kitchen table, our beds, and the pale blue VW Bug. We said good bye to all our friends and neighbors. In their backyard, the day before we left, Jade's family gave us each a little tiny troll. doll to take with us. We all got vaccines for cholera and typhoid. I had nightmares in which I caught cholera from the shots and they left without me.

Instead it turned out to be our largest and sturdiest suitcase that was left behind as we climbed in the taxi that would take us to San Francisco Airport. Moving to Japan without it was unthinkable. It was airlifted to us by helicopter and actually made it to the PanAm plane on time! :)

"It's a non-stop" my mother said about our plane. "When it takes off, it won't land until we get to Japan."

"No it stops in Alaska for refueling" I insisted, because that is what happened when the Bobbsey Twins went to Japan.

"They said that it was a non-stop" my mother wouldn't believe the Bobbsey Twins over an airline ticket agent!

We stopped in Alaska for refueling. Just lucky timing for me I suppose, in later years, non-stop probably did come to mean non-stop.

We also sang a song we learned from the Bobbsey's to the tune of London Bridge
Moshi Moshi Anno ne Anno ne
Moshi Moshi Anno ne
Ah so deska?

Except we like to change the last line to "Ika ga deska?"

more eventually ...