Retrospect: May

Self-tutoring about people and events of the past: the tutor recalls the month of May as an elementary student.

As a kid in the Maritimes, I recall May as a month that would arrive in a low-key way. The weather was not yet, dependably, really nice, although winter was over. We’d go to school in our lighter jackets, enjoying the clear sidewalks and increased brightness. While it rained sometimes, often enough the sky was blue, flecked with clouds, with a cool breeze coming and going to remind one it wasn’t summer.

Mother’s Day was a focus in early May, since it’s celebrated, as I understand, on the second Sunday of May. Therefore, there was always a Mother’s Day craft we would do in respect of it. I wasn’t great at crafts, but navigated that somehow.

I recall in grade five, sitting in the last seat but one in my row, doing my work, with my neighbours talking to me once in a while. (We weren’t allowed to talk, strictly speaking, during class, so it was done sparingly.) They didn’t talk about things to do with school so much, but rather events that were happening outside of school. The farmers were talking about collecting eggs or milking cows – things that had been happening all the year long, but yet they hadn’t mentioned much in January. Sports – mainly baseball – had started, and they’d talk about that. They might also mention clothes they were making or hoping to get. The unity of the classroom, so unquestionable in February, was gracefully disintegrating as the kids began focusing on life outside of school, which seemed so much more relevant during the increasingly bright, warm days of May.

One could reflect on these developments in early May, but by late May the dam seemed broken. There was so much to do outside after school, it could even be hard to find time for one’s homework. Activity on the farms was brisk. Now and then, someone would mention plans for the summer.

I couldn’t relate, back then, to the stress the teachers likely felt as they fought to hold students’ attention for a few more weeks. Yet, they did so, more or less successfully. Even during the last week of May, the students would sit in the classroom, more or less focused and working. Yet, the independence they enjoyed due to the good weather might have stoked a bit of anarchy in them.

As a military kid, I didn’t have the connections or activities that many of the locals had, although I did play baseball. Instead, I mainly observed these developments from my seat in class. It was fun to watch the kids withdraw from school back into life as the improving weather facilitated them to do so.