The phone rings as I'm washing and cutting up vegetables for supper, and I am glad of an excuse to flop my complaining back muscles onto the loveseat for a few minutes. It's Joanne, Mom's very close friend who, and I love her for it, so often helps me keep Mom's memory alive. She greets me with this:

"Hooray hooray, it's the first of May!"

"So it is," I say. It is, too — a nice, sunny day, warm if you're out of the wind, bird and frog song filling the air loudly from every direction.

"It''s a little late in the day," she goes on. "I should've called earlier. Your sister already beat me to it; she called me this morning."

"Eh?"

"Oh, don't you know the story?" I am so glad there are stories and Joanne is here to tell them. "Your mom always used to phone me on the first of May, and say

"Hooray hooray, it's the first of May —
Outdoor screwing starts today!"