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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Many years ago, there was a custom in New England of children "hanging May baskets". This consisted of their acquiring a small basket, decorating it, and putting candy, etc., in it with a loving note to their mother, then hanging it on the front door knob and ringing the doorbell. Then they hid until their mother came to the door and found it. Then they were invited in for an impromptu party with kisses all around.
I haven't heard of this custom's being observed since the 1930's, Has any one else heard of it since?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
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I had totally forgotten this, but we sho'nuff did it. Not just for mothers, but for kids around the neighborhood. Woolworth's sold these little crepe-paper baskets, which we would fill with candy and leave outside someone's door. I'm hazy on this ( it was around age 5 or 6), but my recollection is that you were supposed to leave it and run, because if anyone caught you, they might kiss you. Weird! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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While we're on it, how did "May Day" become the international call of distress?
The Only WO'N!
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Joined: Jul 2000
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member
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member
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mayday = m'aidez (fr.) = help me
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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MayDay used to be taught to ship radio operators when voice transmission became available, along with SOS, which was easy to send with key "...---..." So "mayday" was chosen by somebody ignorant of French. What would you expect?
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Joined: Oct 2001
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
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Mayday = m'aidez
A source I checked gives this derivation:
[From French (venez) m'aider, (come) help me!.]
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Joined: Jan 2002
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Getting back to the original subject, were Dr. Bill and I really the only ones exposed to this pagan ritual?
slithy
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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
were Dr. Bill and I really the only ones exposed to this pagan ritual?
The only pagan ritual I had to suffer through was being paired off with some grubby girl, always one named Ernestine or Thomasine or Earline or the like, who outweighed me two to one, and I had to dance around a large lingam that the grownups called a Maypole.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I assume, my dear Geoff, that eventually the parents discovered that the kids were participating in a pagan fertility ritual and put a stop to it. I can hear you at the breakfast table, "I want my May pole. I want my May pole."
TEd
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