Well…winter past a while back but May 1st cemented the deal. There are a lot of people dancing around the May Pole today. It is cool in Carbondale and the wind is whipping about in a frenetic fashion. May Day is the day that all of the kids see as the countdown to their liberation.

‘Don’t you think that the water will be cold,’ Neva J. asked Billy B.? Not too cold for me as I have the skin of an alligator,’ Billy B. responded with a wink. ‘Pounds Hollow is my favorite spot except for the Orpheum Theatre,’ Chet remarked in a scholarly manner. ‘They are not open yet…you realize…not until Memorial Day and that is toward the end of May,’ Jane said. ‘No one will be there…we will sneak in through the gap in the fence,’ Billy B. chuckled. ‘What if the Forest Ranger catches us…what will we say…what will we do,’ said Cousin Brenda? ‘Run like hell,’ Chet offered.

The May Day Wind was whistling through the trees and the water on Pounds Hollow Lake was exhibiting the effect. ‘I think that I will keep my coat on…I have Merlot for all… let us have a drink before we put our toes in the icy water,’ Neva J. said as she poured the Merlot. ‘This place looks deserted and I do not remember it being covered with trees near the water,’ Jane observed. ‘You know come to think of it…you are right…it looks like it did when Rosebud and I were kids,’ Neva J. said as she savored her Merlot. ‘Rosebud would swim so far out that I could barely see her and would never have been able to make her out if I had not known that it was her little body bobbing up and down in the blue water,’ Neva J. continued. ‘I see three people almost at the far side of the Lake…and they are beckoning for us to swim over to them,’ Cousin Brenda said. ‘I wonder if they got in through the gap in the fence like we did,’ Chet asked?

‘Mom…’, Cousin Brenda said with joy and fear in her voice! ‘What are you folks doing out on a cool and windy May Day…you know that Pounds Hollow does not open up until Memorial Day…right,’ Rosebud asked with a wicked smile on her face? ‘You certainly look a lot like me when I was your age,’ Neva J. laughed. ‘I am you…Neva J…’