The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/137502
A2 Scene The O-Town Editor's Note|By Emily Popek Vol. 3, No. 28 The Scene is published by The Daily Star the second Thursday of each month. Free copies are distributed throughout Oneonta, as well as parts of Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties. www.otownscene.com 102 Chestnut St., P Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820 .O. editor@otownscene.com INTERIM EDITOR Emily Popek epopek@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 217 CONTRIBUTORS Mark Boshnack, Ashok Malhotra, Emily Popek, Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, Kevin Eggleston PUBLISHER Mitchell Lynch mlynch@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 214 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sean Lewis slewis@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 235 EDITOR OF THE DAILY STAR Sam Pollak spollak@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 208 Member of The Associated Press and CNHI News Service 2 O-Town Scene May 9, 2013 From May Baskets to May Day Riots, Spring Must Really Be Here When I was a kid, May Day meant one thing: flowers. A group of us from my elementary school would ride the bus every May 1 to the house of a neighbor woman. She would bring out stacks of gardening magazines and seed catalogs, and bags of old plastic bottles with the labels scrubbed off. From these humble objects, we would craft May baskets - small plastic containers decorated with images of brightly colored flowers, which we carefully snipped from the pages of the magazines. Onto each one, we affixed a label with our name and phone number. Then it was out to the garden, where we snapped off the long stalks of daffodils and tulips, or plucked violets and bluebells from the ground. With a grownup's help, we clipped off fragrant clusters of lilac blossoms and creamy camellias. Then the fun started. We piled into cars and drove around the neighborhood, taking turns sneaking up to front porches, hanging our baskets furtively on the doorknobs, ringing the bell and running back to the car. That evening, the phone calls would come, from neighbors thanking us for the flowers, the afternoon's clumsy subterfuge forgotten. I didn't know it at the time, but I was participating in an ancient tradition heralding fertility and the arrival of spring. And it wasn't until I got to college that I learned of May Day's other legacy, as a workers' holiday often marked by protests and demonstrations. Around here, I don't see a lot of May baskets or demonstrations, but in this issue of the Scene, you can get a little taste of both these aspects of the "merry, merry month of May." In keeping with the ideals of May Day, calling attention to the plight of workers, you'll hear from two local labor leaders about why their work is still vitally necessary. And you can get a glimpse of this year's May Day celebrations held in Albany. As we round the home stretch out of winter, this issue also offers a look ahead at some of the festivals that will keep us rocking all summer long. And this month's featured artist serves up works that are as bright and colorful as spring itself. So whatever May means to you, you're sure to find something in this issue to suit you. Emily F. Popek is interim editor of the O-Town Scene, and assistant editor of The Daily Star. You can reach her at epopek@thedailystar. com.