May Long Weekends

The Victoria Day weekend in Canada and the Memorial Day weekend in the United have followed one another almost the entire history of our two countries. Above is Fargo from a recent visit.

There is meaning behind both day although a lot of it seems lost in the rush to get to campground or beach.

Given geography, it might have been better for each country to exchange the week. Canada’s May 24 is often three different weather events over three days from snow, rain to sun. A week later might at least drop the snow part.

As for the U.S., they seem to have a lot of severe late May weather. Still, the general feeling is that the weekends are the kick off of summer as school age kids have that last weekend before most end school in the weeks ahead.

Travel is usually required. And barbecue and family often a must. As my dad was a teacher, the Victoria Day weekend was a getaway to either Grand Forks or Fargo. We didn’t get as far as Minneapolis except when travelling in the longer summer break.

Others in Manitoba took the time to officially open the cottage if it hadn’t been open already. As mentioned the weeks leading up to the May Long could be fabulous or terrible. A cottage weekend on Victoria could be three days of cold rain playing cribbage, trivial pursuit or puzzles. High speed, cable and satellite are more recent cottage attractions. Still, not every cottage is so equipped.

In Winnipeg, those remaining in the city made a sci-fi weekend a main attraction. And it should be pointed out that not everyone travels. For university and college students, it is a busy work weekend.

However, for our family, it was a chance to be in a pool, shop at stores not yet arrived in Canada and watch more TV channels and programs than we thought possible.

For Canadians, the Memorial weekend in the States meant the kick off the Hollywood blockbuster from the mid 1970s on. This weekend, of course, is Disney with a live version of The Little Mermaid.

But it also means seeing channels with Memorial Day programming. This means movies about war, many WWII movies. The second war is as important to Canada as it is to the States and Hollywood made a few films with Canadian angles. However, we did not have the industry then that we do today. Nor do we do nearly enough Canadian stories for the big screen. Blackberry this past month in the first in a long while that we have seen.

Still, the two weekends represent family, friendship and a chance to do something we don’t do nearly enough, get together and share something in common.