Little Things, IV

I've written before (the first, second, and third times) about the little things, the small differences in a country that are surprising. Along those lines, I scored a major victory yesterday. I didn't look for the newspaper.

Yesterday was a holiday, Victoria Day. Most people call it "May long weekend." I'm not sure that people up here chanted "The twenty-fourth of May is the Queen's birth-day." I know my mother, exiled from Victoria Day celebrations, taught it to me. But then, she also taught me how to play jacks. This is why my husband sometimes wonders exactly how old I am, anyway.

Of course, the U.S. has its own May long weekend, Memorial Day. Started to hono(u)r the Civil War dead, it has now taken on patriotic and family overtones. My parents always took flowers (an iris or lily from their garden) to the grave of their first baby. No doubt they would have visited other family graves, had any been close enough.

Increasingly, Memorial Day is heralded as the official start to summer. Newspapers are thicker than normal because of all the special advertising. It is an occasion for "blow-out" sales on cars, beer, and sodas. In Arkansas, nurseries that sell bedding plants basically close Memorial Day Monday--the arrival of summer means that your pansies and other cool-loving flowers are on their way to a slow, steamy death.

Here, the May long weekend brought snow--just in the air; it melted once it hit the ground. But it's a reminder that we can't yet count on the arrival of summer. Yes, green grass is mixed in among last year's dead stuff, and the willows are sprouting tufts of soft gray. But we can't get complacent. The temperature still dips near freezing at night.

The ladies at the gym today were comparing gardening notes. Only one woman has her bedding plants in the ground already, and she's concerned that they'll get nipped. A few have annuals in flats in the "gradge" ("guh-RAHJ" to me) that they'll put in once we have a few days of sunshine in a row. This close to the lake, the weather stays cool longer. We put flowers in late--possibly not before June.

Grocery stores (except for family-owned corner stores) were closed yesterday for the holiday. The local daily newspaper didn't print yesterday. And, for a wonder, I remembered it was a holiday and didn't go look for the paper. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I'm getting used to this country, little thing by little thing, one holiday at a time.