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The curtain is about to drop on my three-part series on May Day, which seems to have become as extinct as the dinosaurs.
To have experienced this and been able to discuss it with my friends makes it a memory that I will cherish forever.

Here are a few more celebrations from “the good old days.”

1950: Leonard Street
“Once Upon a Time” was the theme. The queen of May, Elizabeth Fair, and king, Benny Ingram, entered the playground in a horse-drawn carriage. She wore a flowing white dress of organdy; he, a long satin cape of purple and gold. Attendants Ruby Fair, Patricia Harris and Annie Powell wore dresses of pastel pink, blue and yellow.

The program included the William Penn High band; Mother Goose characters, first grade; Cinderella and the ballroom dance, second grade; Snow White and Dwarfs dance, third grade; dance of Hansel and Gretel, fourth grade; dance of the court, fifth grade; dance of the Texans/square dancing, sixth grade. First grade wrapped the May pole.

1950: Fairview Street
Student costumes were bright and vivid, appropriate for “The King and Queen of the Circus.” Students made a backdrop of colored pennants and lifelike cardboard circus animals.

Under the supervision of teacher Herman Forbes, these students made the animal cut-outs: Joe Walker, Frank Dorsett, Ernest Jones, George Bullock, Wilson Pickett, Donald Harrison, Laurence Tucker, Samuel Lovette, and Roosevelt Kinsler. Magolia Hart and Herman Forbes played the piano, and the school band, led by drum major George Jones, performed.

1951: Fairview Street
May Day 1951’s theme was “A Health Fair,” and students depicted food groups: green and yellow vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs, first grade; milk products, bread and cereal, second grade; butter, margarine and sunshine, third grade; oranges, tomatoes and grapefruits, fourth grade; fruits, vegetables and cleanliness, fifth grade; physical examination, sixth grade; exercise, seventh grade; sleep and rest, sixth and seventh grade.

Leada McCray was queen of May and Joe Walker was king. Royal court was Barbara Little, Peggy Femister, Larry Neely, Julia Rogers, Nathaniel Kinsler, Frank Thompson, Deloris Rucker, David Hampton, Barbara Charles, James Dubard, Deloris Armstrong, Robert Lane, Mary Allen and Joseph Shealey.

1951: Leonard Street
“This is America” was the theme, with Thomas Fair as Uncle Sam and Daisy Fair as Miss America. With a large map of the U.S. in the background, the following grades did stunts and dances: New England States, Sailor Hornpipe, fifth grade; Middle Atlantic States, The Virginia Reel, fourth grade; Southern States, The Alabama Jubilee and Tennessee Waltz, third and sixth grades; Central States, Old Kentucky Home, song by William Baldwin, Joyce Thomas and Ruth Watts; Western States, Indian dance, cowboy and cowgirl stunts, second grade; and Hawaiian dance, first grade. First grade wrapped the May pole.

1954: Fairview Street
Because Fairview Street was participating in an intensive health study of the city schools, the theme was “Health Around the World.”

Geraldine Gripper was May Day queen, and James Armstrong was king. The queen was crowned by Barbara Jones and Jacob Whitworth. Other members of the court were Helen Graham, Ernestine Thompson, Lizzie Mae Allen, Rebecca Murray, Israel Derry, Alfred Shealey, John Shelton and Howard Brockman. Clarence Nelson was the court jester.

The school band performed while the kids wrapped the May pole. That year, they used single poles with double winding.

1955: Florence School
“A Jolly Good Time for Health” was the theme. Fourth grade created a Vitamingo dance; sixth and seventh grades did military drills; a demonstration of the theme “A Jolly Good Time for Health” by the fifth and sixth grades; and the eighth and ninth grades did the “Waltz of the Teeth and Bones”; Georgette White represented spring with the dance of the nymph; and Robert Brown was the marshal. Catherine Pressley narrated.

Ninth-grader Alberta Davis was crowed May Day queen by Principal Victor Blackburn, and Shirley Jean McBee was maid of honor. Other court members were Ronnie Jessup, John Taylor, Gladys McBee, Sandra Kay Cathy, Carrie Cole, Sandra Hutton, Dianne Hairston, Edward Lindsay, Robert Jeffers, George Jackson, Dannie Jackson, James Clark and Billy Sides.

1955: Fairview Street
Barbara Robbins was queen of May, Walter Harris, king. Sharing various honors were: Varlater Sanders, Carmelia Brown, Ernestine Middlebrooks, Barbara Smith, Shirley Gripper, Janice Baldwin, Hazel Sturgess, Annie Hayes, Peggy Dorsette, Norma Maxwell, Helen Graham, William Haywood, William Miller, Ronald Waden, Shirley Sellers, Robert Lindsay, Barney Blair, Richard Nixon, Harry Geter, Charles Strickland, James Cromatie, Leroy Wright, Roosevelt Robertson, Jerry Brown and Howard Brockman.

1957: Florence School
Valeria Hedrick beat out Julia Williams and Mary Jackson to claim the title of May Day queen. The theme was “Fairyland Fantasy,” which included “Robin Hood,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Cinderella” and “Snow White and the Dwarfs.”

About 1954, Griffin School decided to replace May Day with Physical Education Day. Dances, singing and wrapping the May pole were replaced with running dashes, broad jumps, high jumps, jumping rope, bicycle races and softball games.

That, my friends, began the demise of the old time May Day celebrations. The shame of it all!

Contact Glenn Chavis at Storytime40@aol.com